


A Lost Cause (Codstin Slash)

by neongiraffe



Category: codstin
Genre: Drama, Love, M/M, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-04 17:45:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neongiraffe/pseuds/neongiraffe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cody Simpson has been living the life, he has the fame, the girls, and the money. until he gets in trouble and steps on the wrong side of the law. After a court case he is sent a group home where he is forced to follow the rules. He meets a mysterious boy who he grows to hate. Can that boy make this arrogant, selfish, angry youth to chance or is he a lost cause?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1: Three Questions

Chapter 1; Three Questions.

The first three questions are always the same. Then even how the situation continues doesn't have that many variations, I would guess about two or three.

Anyways, the three first questioning are always "did you really think that that was a good idea?", "do you think you are funny?" and "you are so full of yourself you know that right?'".

I always answer them the same way; yes, yes and yes. Yes I thought it was a good idea, I am very funny and yes, if you know that you are awesome then why hide it?

Then comes the facial expressions. First comes shock, then denial, after that anger and then it settles somewhere between pity and anger. I can see exactly what they think from their faces. "Ooh that poor stupid boy who thinks he can do what ever he wants just because he is famous and all the girls are screaming for him and he has cash to blow like nothing. Someone needs to teach him how the real world works."

And what do I say to them? Fuck you, you know nothing. You are nothing compared to me. I have the girls and the fame and the money, you ain't nothing to me. Then they usually leave me the hell alone and I can get back to partying and living my life.

 

But not this time. Now no matter how much I look down my nose at everyone, tell them to fuck of or just ignore them, they won't leave. I am so fucking tired of these lawyers, social workers and judges who were telling me what to do and not to do. I was only told to be quiet and do as they say. That did not go down with me but all they did was roll their damn eyes like I was a small kid, when I certainly am not. I am sixteen and know exactly what I want to do and damn well will do it.

"Cody are you even listening to me?'" my lawyer, Hans asked me. He was a man in his forties, his face showing that he had had a stressful lifestyle, including not having enough sleep, taking the biggest cup of coffee at Starbucks as possible for breakfast and working 80 hours a week. I didn't even bother answering, I only lifted my gaze from the wooden table on the interviewing room. We were at social service building, having a meeting to discuss about my upcoming court case.

"God dammit Cody the court day is less than a week away and we haven't even started to discussing how you are gonna explain why you thought it was a good idea to steal a car." Hans sighed and tapped the pen in his hand on the table.

"It was a good idea because it was cold and I wanted to go home and didn't have a ride." I answered him with a crooked smile. The lines in his forehead deepened and the pen stopped tapping.

"You do realize that you can't say that on court? The judge and jury will send you straight to juvy without even blinking an eye." Hans said with a tight voice and the tapping started again. I didn't answer.

"Look Cody." he started and leaned forward in his expensive suit that my team of managers helped to pay. I wondered how much Hans actually was paid to do this. Judging from the way he dug his nails in to his palm, he was really battling if it was enough.

"We have to make it look like it was just a stupid drunken mistake. We have to sell you as the sweet boy next door who plays the guitar and sings about crushes."

"I ain't that little boy anymore. And there was more than just alcohol involved. Hey what happened to the girl?" I asked him. He looked confused.

"What girl?"

"The girl I banged in the back of the car. Is she in trouble too? I hope she is, she was such a dirty girl."

"Cody! We don't have time for this! We only have one meeting after this and we need to go over what you are gonna say." Hans said and pressed his lips in a tight line. He looked at the folder in front of him and I knew he was looking if there was anything about the girl.

"Her name was Tessa. I think she was like 25 or something. Great fuck. I think I have her number if you wanna call her sometime." I said leaning closer, lowering my voice in to a whisper.

"You are hopeless you know that?" Hans said and got up. "I'm gonna go for a smoke and let you have some time to think about what you want to do with your life." he said and with one last angry look he excited the room. That was not a surprise, that line was so used. "think about what you want, grow up, be an adult Cody."

 

I didn't care. I really didn't. There probably was a party somewhere right now so I got up, kicked the chair back so it fell on the floor, took my jacket and left the room. I walked along the pale blue corridor that reminded me of a hospital. On both sides were little offices where social workers worked all day to ruin other peoples life's. The corridor ended and I was in a lobby, in front of me a front desk, a door which lead outside on my right. I saw the receptionist who was a cute girl in his twenties. I chanced my plans on that instant and walked straight to the front desk with confident steps and small smile. When I reached the desk which was the same pale blue plastic as the rest of this stupid place, I leaned on it and smiled at the girl.

"Hello." I greeted her and she turned to me. I saw how her eyes raked me, my face, leather jacket and my white dressing shirt which had three buttons open.

"Hello. How can I help you?" she asked and smiled. I smiled wider and ran a hand through my hair.

"I am actually new on this city and was just wondering where you could get something good to eat, do you happen to know any good restaurants?" I talked and made sure to let my accent show, girls loved it. She seemed to think and turned her body towards me more. I knew that I was doing well.

"Well there's a small Italian place at the 30th street and then there are the more fancy ones at 15th street." she said and smiled.

"Oh I don't know the city at all. I get lost easily." I said and pretested to blush and look down.

"Oh it's fine! I'm the same really." she said and I looked up slowly.

"Really? I am horrible at finding places." I laughed and she laughed with me.

"Oh yes really, I get what you are talking about. " she said and played with her hair. I was half way getting her naked already and we have been talking for two minutes.

"I know this sounds weird but.. I was wondering if you could show me where the restaurants are, I mean I am new here and honestly... This is really odd but you seem like a really great girl." I said and smiled. She blushed and looked down.

"Well my shift ends about now so we could go right now."

 

Later that night we went back to hers and after fucking her I left when she was asleep. Her apartment was the other side of town of where I lived but I decided to walk. Well in paper I lived in a group home where all they youths lived waiting for court or another home to be sent to. In reality I lived in the same apartment I have lived for a year now. The rent was high but it was worth it. Every time I brought a girl home they fell for the expensive furniture and wooden floors and big windows with a view over the city. After we were done they left, so excited about the fact that they slept with Cody fucking Simpson. Some of them even lost their virginity to me. Not that I care, as long as they left when I told them to. And they always did.

I walked through the city with confident strides. I knew this city, I owned this city, I knew how this city worked and we worked great together. She gave me everything I needed and in return I used what she gave me well. I partied hard, did the girls and but She was always the only one for me and always would be.

I saw a car parked on the street and thought just how easy it would be to break the window and drive home, like I did last time. This time I wasn't drunk or high or horny so I walked past the car. That time wasn't the first I stole a car, it was the first I got caught. I knew that if I had left the car couple blocks from home and fucked the girl at my apartment instead of in the car outside it. But what can I say, she was so down for it that we hardly made it in front of my apartment. Then came the cops and here I am, court date set. Not that I cared, I will charm the jury and judges and they'll just pat my back and tell me to do better next time. That's how it always goes and had always gone. I was not worried. I would behave in court I can be really convincing if I want to.

After all I was the teenager who plays the guitar and sings about crushes. The fame helps too.

I arrived at my apartment, nodded on the door man and walked through the lobby and called for an elevator and rode up. I walked the short corridor to my door and walked in. I threw my keys on the table next to the door and saw a red blinking light on the darkness, the phone signaling that there was a voice message for me. I knew it was from Hans but I listened to it anyway.

"Cody our next meeting will be on Thursday and the court is on Friday at noon so I expect you to show up to both."

Short but pithy I thought and deleted the message. There was one more message and I listened to it too while taking my jacket off.

"Hey it's Tessa. I heard about your court thing and I'm sorry. I was wondering if we could meet at yours tonight? Call me back." I smiled to myself, I knew she would call. They always did, no matter how bad I treated them. And then they would go cry on some good guys shoulder and wonder why life was always so tough on them. It was their fault really, why did they always come running back even thought they knew I was never gonna be their only one and we would never do anything else than fuck and then I would tell them to leave. It was a mystery to me really, why keep hurting yourself over and over again, when you know things are not gonna chance? Girls really were quite something I thought and walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge. I walked to the living room and flopped on the couch. I turned on my flat screen and watched a show about people working on the airport and fell asleep on the couch.


	2. Three Strikes

People lie. That's just the basic nature of humanity, they can't help it. But people do lie from different reasons and that divides us to good and bad people. Good people lie to protect others, to avoid from hurting them, disguise the truth to something more bearable. Bad people lie to help themselves, to gain something, to win. It's simple.

Then are the ones that don't answer or avoid the question when asked. Are those good or bad people? I'd say they are trying to be the good ones but end up causing more bad than good.

I personally hate those kind of people, they just want to be hypocritical, pretend that they are something more, something better than what they actually are. But trying to be something else, a better version of you is just another thing that everyone do, another basic feature of us humans.. Because nothing really ever is enough, there is always something better, we could always be something more, a better version of ourselves.

 

And now watching the faces of the people sitting in the jury, being the ones to decide if someone was being bad or good, I kinda want to just punch them. Who are those people to decide what is right and what is wrong. They are supposed to unbiased, with a lawful mind and make their decision from evidence, not let their personal thoughts and opinions effect their decision. I'd say that that is just pure crap.

I looked at every face sitting behind that wooden fence, carefully examining their faces, their eyes. All of their faces showed no feelings or expressions, their faces were just blank.

They say that the first impression is the most important, that in the first five seconds we decide if we like a person or not. So if that is true, how can a jury, a bunch of randomly selected citizens just forget that reflex, habit, feature or what ever you want to call it, how can they just prune it out and just make their decision just based on the evidence?

The first impression that they got from me was confident, but not arrogant, sorry but not regretting. I needed to show them that I believed in my innocents but not be overly sure about it, then they would have just thought that I was hiding something. I showed them that I was sorry, but too much regret made them think that I actually did something wrong.

People lie. They really can't, but they always do. People think that using your imagination when lying is the best thing to do, but really it's not. Imagination is like cotton candy, looks solid and hard but when touched, breaks in to peaces and when meets your tongue, melts in to sugar.

 

I can see when people are lying immediately, I knew which words are true and which made up. I know if someone was embellishing the truth, or just avoiding the question. When people lie, they are either too confident or too insecure. Either they go overboard or hide their faces and apologize for ever being born. The best liars don't lie, they just take a peace of the truth and add something on it. Like behind every legend, there is a peace of truth behind it. The better liar you are, the smaller the peace of truth has to be. You'll get better.

Day earlier I arrived at the social workers building, walked to the reception desk. The girl I fucked a day ago was working again and after seeing me, her eye widened and then narrowed.

"I'm here to see Hans Allgreen." I informed her without showing any kind of recognition.

"He has arrived and is waiting for you in room three. And Cody-"

"Great." I interrupted her, turned and walked away. I could bet my head that she was eying me angrily but I didn't care. Been there done her.

I opened the wooden door which had a plastic sign saying "Interview 3" and walked in. I didn't bother nodding, I just sat down.

"You are late." Hans said and took a gulp from his coffee. I was pretty sure it must have been his fifth cup for today and it was only nine o'clock.

"Yes." I only answered.

"We need to go over your defense, I'll ask you same kinda of questions you will be asked tomorrow and you'll answer. All clear?"

"Can't you just give me the list of questions and I could go?" I asked him and massaged my head. There was a moment of silence before he spoke.

"Are you hung over?"

"Yes. So can you or can you not?" Then there was sudden very loud noise, when Hans jumped up, kicked his chair back and hit his fist on the table

"For fucks sake Cody! Can't those little immature brain of yours understand that you might be facing five years in juvy? Don't you care at all? Of course you don't, you are just a stupid little brat!" he yelled and turned around to face the wall. This was no surprise to me, this always happens.

First people like me, then they realize that I'm not that sweet boy anymore, then they wonder what am I then, then they start pitying me and then this awesome thought crosses their mind, I can help him. I can help him! They think that if they show a little love and take care of me for awhile, then I would be all better and normal again. They think that I will start trusting them and that soon I will back living with my mum and performing on the weekends, going to bed before nine and eat cereal for breakfast and date a nice girl.

 

 

I am allowed three mistakes, I learnt that. Three strikes and then they can't take me anymore. When I let them down the first time, they are a bit disappointed but get over it soon, thinking that I'll learn from my mistakes, this had to happen. The second time it makes them a bit angrier, and they say that I already did this once, why didn't I learn? Then comes the third and last strike, then they throw me out, yell, call me names and end up saying that I am hopeless, I am a lost cause, get out. With Hans, this was my third strike, so I just got up, took the paper on the table that had the question written on it and left the room.

So that was yesterday. Today, right now I was sitting in court, wearing a good suit and looking the lawyer trying to convince the jury that I need therapy, rehab and five years in prison straight in the eyes. She was rather pretty in her pencil skirt and jacket, her hair up in a ponytail. She was a bit too old for me, maybe in her early thirties, but you really couldn't see it from her body or face. If she wasn't currently sending me to jail, I would have fucked her.

"Mr. Simpson. Am I correct when I say that you were inside a stolen vehicle on April second, 2013?"

"Yes you are."

"Is this the vehicle?" she asked and showed me a picture.

"Yes."

"So you admit being inside this car that was stolen the same night, just an hour later it was reported stolen?"

"Yes."

"Did you steal the car Mr. Simpson?"

"Yes I did."

She smiled and turned to the jury.

"As we can establish, Mr. Simpson regonises the car that was reported stolen and admits stealing it. No further questions." she said to the judge and sat down.

"Defense please." the judge said and Hans sat up.

"Mr. Simpson, were you alone in that car?"

"No I wasn't."

"Who were you with?"

"A girl I met at a party."

"How old was this girl.

"I can't say for sure, but I would say in her mid twenties."

"Have you consumed any alcohol that night?"

"Yes."

"Would you mind telling the jury how you got in to the party and who gave you the alcohol?"

"Tessa, the girl I was with. I met her at a friends house and she told me there was a party near. We went there, it was a friend of hers and she got me in. Then she offered me something that looked like coke and I drank it."

"Did you know it was alcohol when you drank it?"

"No I didn't."

See a lie? I didn't know it was alcohol but I was pretty sure it was. I would have been disappointed if it wasn't.

"When you left this party, how were you feeling?"

"A bit dizzy, Giggly, the world seemed to spin every now and then."

"Then tell me why you decided to break the window of a car and steal it.

"Tessa asked if we could go to my place and well...Make love and I said I didn't have a ride and that we should take taxi. She couldn't wait and told me to take that car. And I did, I was drunk for the first time and didn't quite know what was going on."

"Did she tell you she wanted to have sex with you?"

"Yes."

"How did she tell you that?"

"Well she told me she wanted to -excuse me for my language, but these are her words - " I want to fuck you as soon as possible."."

"Did she show you any other way that she wanted to have sex with you?"

"Yes, she rubbed my private parts and lifted my hand to touch her breasts."

I saw how the prosecutor lawyer burrow her brows. She knew she was losing.

"Were you a virgin at that time Mr. Simpson."

"Yes I was."

That was the last nail in to her coffin. She knew she had lost and we were winning. She would offer us a settlement, so she would look a like a complete fool.

When the court was over I sat on a table and she indeed walked over to us and spoke in a tight tone.

"I know that most of what you said back there was full bullshit. And you certainly were no virgin back then. But my client wants to settle this outside court and we are offering two months in a group home. Will you take the offer?" she asked and I smiled widely at her and leaned towards her and whispered to her ear.

"I will. And you were right, I am no virgin." I whispered with a deep tone and I saw goose bumps appear on her skin.

Then I leaned down, signed the paper and gave the folder back to her. Then I took this my wallet and slipped a peace of paper with my number on it.  
"Call me if you feel like seeing how non-virgin I am." I whispered, hopped down from the table and left.

Authors Notes.

Tadaa there it is. Bye.


	3. The Red House and Little Benning

Being smart is something that everyone wants to be. Nobody really wants to be dumb, they want to be sharp and witty and understand Shakespeare or what means when a government shuts down. Being smart is a trait we sell to others about ourselves or about someone else.

"He is charming, good looking and really smart", "I am on my thirties, I am sporty, musical and smart."

See? Being smart is always a good thing. I like to make people think that I'm not smart. When they think that I'm not quite on the same level intellectually as they, it gives me a chance to watch them and see how they act and treat me and others. Some people treat me like I'm a small boy in his early puberty and that I don't have an opinion on how I want my life to go. Some people ask what I think, nod and say yes oh that's right and when the time comes to actually make a decision, they do just what they think it best for me, even thought it's the exact opposite I said.

 

Then are the people who treat me all the same as the others. Well I think they do, I haven't met anyone like that yet. But I have a theory – well I have a theory about everything – that there might be hope out there and I might actually meet someone who treats me all the same. Even better, if they saw straight through my act and saw that I actually am very smart.

Well we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

But all those social workers,, teachers, judges, people on the jury, they all thought that I was really stupid. That I didn't have one good and functioning part of my brain left, so they treated me like a small child. Some of them asked what I wanted to do with my life and nodded and smiled and then did the exact opposite, because I was a small stupid child who doesn't know what's good for him.

So I played along. Why? Because I knew no matter what I said, I would be wrong. If I told them that I was very capable of knowing what I want to do and that actually know a lot more about the laws concerning custody, child care and home arrangements than they do, I would have been wrong.

"oh silly boy of course you do. Now go and watch a DVD will you?"

So basically if I was dumb, I was wrong, if I was smart, I was wrong. So I decided to stay in the dumb zone, it let me have the chance to study other people.

If there was a smart kid with a very high AQ sitting on the defended booth, I would probably served the five years, instead of two months in a group home, with no criminal record. (yeah the criminal record thing came off the same time as the pencil skirted lawyer did in my bed last night)

 

Because if I was a smart kid, I wouldn't have left with a strange older women and wouldn't have drank something that I couldn't identify, or just you know the steal a car thing. But because I was dumb, I was now on my way to group home in a village that didn't even show in satellite pictures.

I have searched it on the internet and there really wasn't much information, It was called "Little Benning." and it located somewhere up in the mountains, away from all the civilisation. The actual group home was called " Red House" and it located around 20 kilometres from Little Benning. I was sure that the distance prevented people from escaping the group home. The Red House did have it's own internet page, but it was full shit. It had a page for parents and it was written in a way that any parent with a troubled kid would think that sending their child there would fix any bad parenting they had ever done.

And then it had a page for basic information, location and stuff and then one that was pretty much designed for the kids that were sent to their room after being told that they are going to a group home and were now googling about it.

It was written in a strict and tough way but not in a way that would send the kids running away from home to avoid going there.

So right now, I was sitting in a car with Hans, on my way to Little Benning and the Red House. I was looking out from the window, listening to my MP3 player and not talking to Hans. The only reason why he had come was that he felt bad for me, maybe even pitied me or something. I didn't really care, I didn't need his pity or company. He just wanted to come to easy he's own guilt, so it really didn't have anything to with me.

We drove past wooden red signs on both side of the rode that "Welcome to Little Benning, enjoy your stay!"

"Here we are then." Hans said but I didn't bother answering.

 

 

We drove in to a forest, the trees surrounding us and it instantly felt like we just left the normal world behind. The road narrowed and the trees grew higher and higher. We drove on the sinuous road and I kept my eyes on the window. Five minutes later the forest opened up a bit and I saw buildings. They were all low, and looked old, like the village has been there for a long time, forgotten from the outside world. We slowed down and drew through the village and I read the names on the shop windows.

"Barber", " Jim's shoes", Bank", "Antique shop"," Book store"...

The roofs of the buildings looked like they were made from a hay like material, the walls from something white and jagged looking, and the window frames were made from thick dark wood.

I expected the people on the streets to stop and stare, but everyone went on with their business as normal. We rolled through the village until the stores and houses thinned out and then we dived in to a thick forest again. The trees seemed to grow even taller and taller, reaching up to the sky, like in the Jack and the Beanstalk.

We kept driving and I counted twenty kilometres in my head, trying to estimate the distance. After I reached twenty, we kept on driving for about half an hour. The time seemed to stretch, lengthen and mould into something unbearable and torturing.

I finally saw a big metal sign saying "The Red House" on the side of the road.

"I guess we are here." Hans said again.

 

I took a deep breath and took the headphones from my ear and carefully wrapped them around the MP3 player and put it to my jacket pocket. The road went around a big eagle statue so you could just drive in front of the house and then drive the same road back. I watched as we drove past the huge eagle statue, it must have been at least three meters high, the stone surface had started to wear out, leaving it blotchy. It's beak was open and ready to attack, at the claws on the eagles legs were pointed towards me. The car stopped and I took a deep breath and got out from the car.

The mansion was three stories high, the architecture 19th centenary, white stares leading up to a big wooden door. In front of the door stood a women in her mid thirties, her brown hair up in a ponytail. She was wearing normal jeans and a blue cardigan and she was smiling at me. I straightened my long black trench coat and walked to the back of the car to take my luggage. Then me and Hans walked up the stairs to greet the women.

"Hello my name is Lena and I am the owner of the Red House. Welcome." she said with an accent I couldn't quite name. She extended her hand and we shook hands.

"I'm Cody. Pleasure to meet you." I said and nodded. She eyed me for a split second before smiling and shaking hands with Hans.

"So umm I think I have to get back Cody. " Hans said and turned to me.

"I agree. "

"Take care." he said after a second hesitating and awkwardly patted my back. I nodded and Lena opened the door for me.

"Please come in." she said and I followed her in to a big lobby. Big stairs lead up to the second and third floor in front of us, behind them opened a big room what I guessed was some kind space between the lobby and the living room.

"I'll show you up to your room." Lena said and walked the stairs up. We went all the way to the third floor and then turned right to a long corridor. The walls were all made from wood, painting hanging on either side of the corridor, embroidered mats on the floor.

On each side of the corridor were wooden doors that all had numbers, starting from one and going on to the end of the hall.

"You are at six, the numbering goes from up to down and from right to left. So you won't get confused." Lena said and smiled.

"Thank you for informing me." I said politely. I knew that she wasn't quite buying this polite behaviour, but that was expected.

She opened the door to rather big room with a large bed, a desk, chair and a closet.

"Please settle in. Dinner is in half an hour, I'll come and get you then." she said as I walked in and then she closed the door.

 

I laid my back on the bed and took in my surroundings. There was no television or a computer but I never thought there would be. I took of my coat and started to unpack. I didn't bring much, just necessary clothes and hygiene things, so I was done pretty quick. Glancing at my clock I saw that I still had 15 minutes left, so I thought I'd take a little tour of the house. I opened the door and stepped out. I heard a door close at the end of the corridor but when I looked, it was already close and I didn't know which door it was.

I walked to the end of the corridor and stood in front of a large window. I saw a big well kept garden and after that just kilometre after kilometre of forests.

I wondered if garden keeping was one of my chores for the next two months.

"Cody? It's time for dinner, let me show you where the dining room is." I heard Lena's voice and turned around. She was standing at the other end of the corridor so I smiled and walked to her. She guided me down the stairs to the lobby, and then we walked to the room I saw earlier from the lobby. We walked through it and I saw it had a fireplace and book shelves on every wall. I guessed it was some kind of library.

We walked through a door and then arrived to a large dining room and suddenly the air filled with laughter and talk. In the middle of the room was huge wooden table, it must have had at least 20 seats and almost every one were occupied with a person.

"Please take a seat, we will began in just a minute." Lena said and pointed an empty seat in the middle of the table. I nodded and walked there and sat down. I looked up and saw a big crystal chandelier hanging from the roof.

"Hello! I'm Evert." I heard a voice coming from next to me. I turned and saw a guy around my age, with the blondest hair and eyelashes I have ever seen. His blue eyes sparkled and he was smiling widely.

"Hello. I'm Cody." I said and we shook hands.

"You just arrived huh?" he asked.

"Yes I did."

"Where are you staying?" he asked.

"I'm in room six."

"Oh I'm right next to you. I'm at five." he said and laughed.

"Okay calm down everyone!" I heard Lena raise her voice, but when I looked at her, she was smiling.

"Thank you! Now before we began, this is Cody and you'll get the chance to get to know him later, but now we eat!" There was laughter and cheering noises.

The food came and it was really good. I piled meat and potatoes to my plate and dug in.

"So where are you from?" Evert asked. "No wait let me guess, From the big city?" he said after looking up and down at me.

"Yeah London. But Australia originally." I said and smiled a bit.

"Oh man really? That is awesome. I think I have cousins in Australia." he said and took a huge bite from his toast.

"Oh what a coincidence. Do you know where there'?"

"Gold Coast I guess." he said after thinking a while.

"Really? I'm from there." I said and he smiled widely at me.

"I think we will find that we have a lot in common." Evert said gave me a look that could have been flirtatious. I didn't mind, he was hot and two months without getting laid? I don't think so.

"You'll fit in here great. And you'll get to know all they guys soon enough. Almost everyone are here now I think." Evert said and scanned the table.

"Well of course the grumpy one but don't mind him." he continued and smiled.

"I hope so. So, is it just guys here?" I asked as I looked around and didn't see one girl.

"Yea it's an all boys home. Something about not wanting to lock teenagers with hormones together for long periods of time." he said and I laughed. He leaned closer conspiracilly and pretended to look if someone was listening. I leaned closer and he whispered:

"They didn't think about that some of us might like boys better anyway." I laughed and he joined me.

"I guess they didn't." We shared a smile and ate in silence again.

"So...Who is the grumpy one?" I asked him, wanting to keep the conversation going.

"Oh you mean Justin? Yea that's pretty much all I know about him. He likes to keep for him self really. Kinda mysterious. I mean we all want to just do our time in peace and then leave but that dude is something different. Mysterious, like I said." he explained and already knew that he was a happy and bubbly person.

From a very young age I have been excellent at reading people. I could be a stranger for two minutes and in that time learn what kinda of people they were, their basic personality and stuff. What I got from studying Evert, was that he was a fun, outgoing, social person, with a twinkle in his eye.

"So he is not here?" I asked him.

"No, he's up to his room I guess. Doing something mysterious."

"Mysterious..." I said more to myself that to Evert. I liked mysteries. People who try to hide something are always the most fun of them all. I liked solving puzzles and problems and humans were the most complicated and hardest ones to solve.

So a mystery boy? That sounded good, because hey two months without anything to amuse myself and work my brain? No way.

Author's Notes:

There aren't any.


	4. The Closet

I am very good at reading people. I know when people are telling the truth and specially when they are lying. As long as I can remember I have watched people. Not in a creepy stalker way as that might sound, but in a learning way I guess. I studied people from a very young age, I watched how they acted, what they said, how they reacted to anything.

People usually think that what other people say is the most important thing, but really it's not. People can puke what ever words they want from they mouth, they have control over that, but the most important thing is their body and face. What your face tells me when you are saying that you didn't eat the last cookie or that you do not want to fuck me, is a whole lot more important. Your lips, where your hands are, did you swallow or not, all of those things tell me more than your words.

 

But detecting lies isn't what I really enjoy to do, I found that knowing pretty much every time someone is refusing the truth to you doesn't make you feel that awesome. I treat people like they are puzzles, some more difficult than other, just like in real life, some puzzles have 10 pieces and other 1 000. I want to know why people are the way they are, why they react to something a certain way, why other people cry and other smile.

Like with real puzzles, I start from the corners, they are the base of the puzzle. You perceive how big the puzzle is, where the edges are. It's the same with people. First you find the corners, get a sketchy idea about them, what they are like. Because I have a theory about everything, I actually gave the four corner pieces names. They are where, where, when and what.

Where are they now, where did they came from, when are they leaving and what they hate. The basics, I want to know in what kind of life situation they are now, what are their backgrounds – not the whole story, just something- when are they going to leave so I know how much time I have to solve them and the one thing they hate. And I don't mean like if they hate tomatoes, but something a bit deeper.

 

And not all people are interesting enough for me to start studying, I just gather the corners and then leave them be, they are too simple, too easy. I have never met a person who I would want to solve completely. I haven't ever got that feeling that you just have to get to know a person, have to figure them out, find out their deepest secrets, their memories, their thoughts, everything. Couple times I thought I found someone interesting but then I realize that they are not what I've been looking for. So I've kept looking, searching for someone.

When you got the corners of your puzzle, you start to sort out the other pieces, by colour or shape or what ever you want. You start to pile together pieces that have something in common. I do that with people, I watch them, study them and then categorise the information and pile them together. And then slowly start to put the pieces together, it takes some trying, putting wrong pieces to wrong places, but I love it.

I just haven't ever found that kind of person that I would have the interest and energy to study through. I've done it a couple times, just to practise, but it gets boring when you are not really interested on what you are doing.

 

I snapped out of my thoughts when Evert nudged my shoulder. The dinner went well, I talked when asked something, ate and didn't have part on the conversation going on, but kept an eye on everyone on the table. No one really talked to me except Evert, he asked me where I was from and stuff like that. Lena kept on eye on me the whole dinner, she had this motherly front but I knew that she could be really stern and hard if she wanted to.

Our eyes met over the dinner table a couple of times, but she only smiled, but I knew she was watching me. I could tell that she was very smart too, probably had a degree in psychology, probably PHD.

"Well she won't figure me out." I thought during the dinner.

"You ready to go up? We can walk the same way." Evert asked me

"Sure." I said and smiled a little, folding the napkin from my lap and put it on the table. I stood up and took my plates and searched for the kitchen.

"Oh no you don't have to do that. Well eventually you do, we take shifts." Evert said and right then a boy with curly hair took the plates from my hands and walked to the back of the room and through the door.

"It will all be explained to you tomorrow. But now let's go." Evert said and smiled. I smiled back and followed him out of the dining room.

I watched Evert's back as he walked in front of me. I saw that he was quite muscular, not anything overboard but I could see that he worked out.

"So you were at six?" he asked and stopped to wait so that we could walk side by side.

"Yes I am." I answered and he nodded and smiled. I knew that he was attracted to me and I guessed he didn't even do girls. I didn't mind, I did boys too, I wasn't that picky really. Don't get me wrong, I didn't shag everything that moved, I did only the ones that were some kind of challenge, or the ones I genuinely liked. I didn't do slutty people, or ones who had any kind of problems, I learnt they weren't worth the trouble. I wanted in and out quickly, I didn't have the time or energy to listen a girl go on about how all they guys treated her badly or how she got pregnant at 15 or how a guys dad just died or anything like that. I do feel for them, poor people but still, I just wanted a good shag and then be out of the door.

"Can I ask you a question?" Evert asked as we walked up the stairs.

"Yes I guess."

"Do you have a guy waiting for you when you get out?" he asked and I was a little surprised. I had guessed that he was a straight forward guy but I wasn't sure.

"No I don't. Do you?" I replied as we got to the corridor where our rooms were.

"No. I don't have anyone." he said smiling mischievously but I knew that there was a truth behind his words, that he really didn't have anyone and that he only played it as a joke.

We reached his door and he stopped and turned to me.

"So...if you get lonely or just want to have some fun without any strings attached.. You know where I am." he said and nodded back to his door. I smiled and leaned to whisper in to his ear.

"I'll remember that." Then I moved back and hovered just above his lips. I then moved away, smiled and walked to my door. I didn't look back, just opened my door and got in.

 

 

Morning came and I woke up to someone knocking on my door. I opened my eyes and groaned "come in". The door opened and Evert walked in.

"Good morning! Lena told me to wake you and tell you that breakfast is ready in like ten minutes." he said and smiled. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, the sheets sliding down my chest, down to my lap.

"I knew you worked out." Evert said and winked. I looked down at my bare chest only smiled.

"I do. I bet you do too." He laughed and walked fully in to the room and sat on my bed.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked casually.

"Yes I did, thank you."

"Oh you can save the thank you's to Lena. Well not like she appreciates them. Well it depends." Evert said and then knitted his eyebrows together.

"I'm not making sense am I. You'll understand when she has told you how the House works. Probably today. Just one tip, stay on her good side will you? I want to see you some more and being locked away really doesn't help that." he said and got up.

"Again not making sense. You'll understand. But I will leave now and let you get dressed." he said and walked to the door. Just before stepping out and closing the door he peeked behind it and said:

"Not that you have any need any. Clothes I mean." he added and smiled and then closed the door. I yawned and ran a hand through my hair.

 

I got up and got dressed. I chose something comfortable but still smart, a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and a brown cardigan. I styled my hair and went down for breakfast. As I arrived, there were around ten boys sitting around the table, but no one reacted to my arrival in any way. Except Evert who waved and patted the seat next to him. I sat down on the long wooden bench and Evert offered me toast and other foods. We ate and talked a bit, nothing deep or sexual, but I saw the twinkle in his eyes. After we were finished, the same brown haired guy came and took my plates again.

"This is Alex, by the way, He's on kitchen duty this week." Evert introduced us. Alex nodded and smiled, his brown eyes smiling. He didn't say anything, just took the plates and left.

"He doesn't talk much, but a nice guy. Good listener." Evert said and I nodded, looking after Alex. He seemed interesting enough, a boy who didn't speak, I thought.

"Cody, would you join me?" I heard Lena speak and looked up. She was standing next to me with a smile on his face. It was more of a stern smile than a happy one. I nodded, got up and she signalled me to follow her.

We walked out of the dining room, past the stairs and forward a corridor.

It had paintings and portraits of people. They looked old, the colour on the frames and on the paintings starting to wear off. I guessed some of them could be dated back to the 1800, judging from the way the people were dressed. I noticed they all had a necklace of a small red rose on their neck. It was arranged so the necklace showed and people looking at the painting saw it, but not I a way that it was too obvious. Lena kept walking, the sound of her black heals echoing on the corridor. She wore a black skirt and a jacket, her hair up in a ponytail again.

We walked past several doors that some had signs in them saying "teaching 1", "teaching 2", " toilet", " office" and "janitor". We stopped in front of one door that had a sing saying "Lena, Hirsch " without any tittle or description about her position here. She opened the door and stepped in.

 

The room was rather large office, the back wall was one huge window, the view opening to the garden and forest. A big dark oak table stood in the middle of the room and a black leather chair behind it. One normal wooden chair was placed a meter from the table. In front of the window ran a long wooden cabinet, all the doors closed. Lena sat behind the desk and waved me to take a seat on the chair. I sat down and looked at Lena.

She was moving some papers around the table, I was pretty sure the papers were about me. I was proven right when she took her glasses from on top of her head and lowered them to his eyes and red out loud.

"Cody Robert Simpson, born in January 11. 1997, parents divorced, dad died, mother lives in Australia. No sisters or brothers, no family in the UK. Caught inside stolen vehicle, that lead to two months in a group home without any criminal records. " she read and I decided not to answer anything.

"The "no criminal record" thing here amuses me a bit." she said and looked at me over her glasses.

"It does?" I asked, knowing that she knew that normally there would always be a record of everything somewhere.

"Yes it does. So tell me, how did you do that?" she asked, putted her papers down and leaned on the desk with her elbows.

"I didn't have any part in it. The case was settled outside court, as you can read from that paper." I said politely. She smiled slightly and looked down at her papers again,

"So the other lawyer was Sandra Deen. I head she is really attractive."she said and didn't look at me. I knew she was playing with me like with a little boy and I was not happy about that.

"Not my type." I said and was honest. She was attractive yes and good in bed but not that exciting. I just did what I had to do and I bet she'll never find anyone that does it better than me.

"Really? So you thought about it?" Lena asked and looked at me again.

She thought she had me cornered but that wasn't the case.

"Yes. It was the way she dressed. Short skirt and couple buttons open. She knew what she was doing." I said and raised my eyebrows, knowing very well that what I just described it was what Lena was wearing right now.

"Hmm really?" she said and I noticed the slight movement in her lips, telling me that my comment hit home.

"Yes." She looked at me a while and then went back to her papers.

"So you are aware that you will be spending the next 62days here?" she asked.

"I think it's 61 now. I was under the impression that yesterday counted too?" I asked politely but I saw the annoyance in her posture.

"Yes, I'm sorry 61. You are not allowed to take holidays or weekends off and you will serve your time on this institution. "

"Yes."

"So I am going to tell you how this place works. You will call me Ms. Hirsch and I will call you by your surname.

First of all breakfast is at eight and then at nine we have our morning info, which is mandatory to everyone. If you are not there, or are late you will be punished. In the info you will be told what you job for the day is and you are going to do what you are told to seven pm. Dinner is at 12, lunch at 6 and evening meal at 8. Everyone are counted at meals and you are required to be there.

You are not allowed to leave the house unless your daily job requires it.

At nine you are required to be standing in front of your room, for evening counting and when that is done, you will go to your room and the doors will automatically lock. You stay inside your room until breakfast again. Any questions at this point?" she asked.

"No."

"Good. I have meetings this morning so I will have one of the boys show you around the house." she said and picked up the phone on her desk. She pushed a button, waited a second and then talked.

"Kristina, tell Mr.Älström to come to my office please."

"Älström...That name sounds really familiar. He must be a son of someone import but I can't remember where I heard that name.." I thought before the door opened and Evert stepped in.

"Ms. Hirsch I was told to come here." he said.

"Yes Mr. Älström, you are going show Mr. Simpson here the house. Take these keys and show him the teaching rooms and every room we use daily. Have him back at 12 and the keys too. Do not lose the keys, do I make myself clear?" she asked with a dangerous voice.

"Yes." Evert answered and I rose from the chair.

"Thank you Ms. Hirsch." I said and got up.

We left the room and Evert turned to smile at me.

"Guess it's just you and me now huh?" he asked and I smiled. This afternoon could end up being very productive.

 

We walked back the same corridor me and Lena came and Evert stopped in front of a room that said "teaching 2" and opened it with the keys he got from Lena. We stepped in and I saw a very basic class room, with tables for students, a desk for a teacher in the front the room and a board behind it.

"As you might guess, this is a room where we learn stuff. We have to take classes about rehabilitation, anger, how the society works -taxes and stuff-, psychology, how to get a job, laws.. Stuff they think are useful." he said and walked out and closed the door.

We kept walking and passed the door that said "office" and Evert stopped.

"Oh and there you can find Kristina, she handles paperworks and stuff, if you have any questions go to her." he explained and moved on. We walked past the stairs and past the kitchen and stopped in front of a door that said "hall".Evert opened the door and we got in. We were in big hall, which I guessed was used for sports and big evernt.

"Here is our hall, here is where the morning info is held. And sports. We do have a gym too, if you want to get sweaty sometime." he said and winked. I raised my eyebrows and smiled.

"Definitely."

"Good." he said and looked in to my eyes for a second before brushing past me on his way out the door, making sure that his chest touched mine.

"So let's go upstairs. " he said and guided me up. We went up only the first set of stairs and Evert pointed left.

"Here are our therapy rooms, there you'll sit down and talk about your feelings. On the right are toilets, shower and sauna." he said and kept walking up. We stopped at the second floor landing and he nodded left.

"There is the gym and a play room, it has a TV and board games, magazines and stuff. We hang there on our free time. And free time is after you have done your work, usually in the evening before eating and bed. On the right are more teaching rooms, they are usually used for private tutoring." he said and then we walked up the last set of stairs. I enjoyed the view that I got, he really had a nice ass. He happened to look at me and smiled when he saw me staring.

"Like what you see?" he asked and I only shrugged.

"Hard to say. Those jeans make it a little difficult." I said with a low voice and he only laughed.

 

We got to the last floor and Evert turned left. We walked onwards on the corridor and passed doors without any signs in them. We reached the end of the corridor and Evert looked past me. When he saw my raised eyebrows he chuckled and said.

"Just making sure no one sees us. This is my favourite room of the whole house." he said mischievously and opened the door. The room was dark and I didn't see much, only that it wasn't a room, more like a closet or a supply room. Evert suddenly took my hand and pulled me in.

"C'mon we don't want to get caught, it's your first day." he whispered while pulling me in and closing the door. He snapped the light on from somewhere and I took the chance to look around. I was right, it was a supply room with shelves on either side of the walls. The room was actually more like a corridor, it kept going forward and then made a turn to the right. Evert pulled me forwards and we walked around the corner and I realized that the room was U-shaped and Evert dragged me to the end of the room. Looking to right, I saw the door which we came in from, but there was a shelve between the door us.

Evert let go of my hand and leaned to the shelve on the back of the room.

"So... Now that we have some time to kill, I was wondering if you wanted to have some fun?" he asked, tilting his head up, licking his lips.

"You dragged me to a dark closet to have some fun?" I asked teasingly, knowing exactly what kind of fun he wanted to have. I took a step forwards and he ran a hand through his blond hair.

"Yea I did. Do you have any ideas what we could do?" he asked and bit his lip, his blues turning darker. I took another step forwards and was now standing just a small step away from him.

"I might have some ideas... What did you have in mind?" I asked him and he breathed faster. I took the last step separating us and we were now just centimetres apart. I felt his chest moving up and down rapidly and he looked in to my eyes.

"I could do something with my lips?" he suggested and took a hold of the collar of my shirt.

"Lips sound good." I whispered and he smiled. I leaned in and pressed our lips together. He pulled me closer and opened up his mouth immediately. We kissed and I felt him harden against my leg. I lowered my hands to his waist and bucked my hips forward. I pulled back to kiss his neck.

"Someone is eager." I teased and bit on his skin. He moaned and tilted his head back more. I kissed his skin and slipped my hands under his shirt. I pulled away from his skin and hovered above his lips, not letting him kiss me.

"Someone is teasing." he answered and I only smiled. The air was getting hotter, our breathing warming it up, the blood pounding in my ears and his hands roaming around myskin. Evert moved forward and crashed our lips together, not waiting but sliding our tongues together. He bucked his hips forward and made very clear what he wanted to happen.

I moved my hands from his waist on his belt and opened it with one fast movement. I removed my mouth from his and kissed his jaw up to his ear, while pushing his jeans down. His hands mimicked mine and opened my jeans and pushed them down. I sucked his earlobe into my mouth and wrapped hand around both of our dicks. He moaned low and wrapped his arms around my neck. I moved my hand up and kissed him again. He was breathing hard, his hips moving to meet my hand and then back.

"Dammit I didn't know that just a hand could feel this good." he moaned out of breath. I laughed in to his lips and kissed him again, all wet and dirty.

"You'd be surprised." I whispered and moved my hand faster. He tilted his head back on the shelve and I burried my head on his neck and kept on going faster. I sucked his skin and he was melting on the shelve. His breathing coming faster and faster, his chest rising and lowering in unsteady movements.

"I can't Cody I'm gonna..gonna" he stuttered and moved his hands up to curl his fingers in my hair.

"Do it." I said and bit in to his skin again. He whimpered loudly and came in to my fist and our joined dicks. He slumped against the shelves and I let go of our dicks. He looked at me through his half closed lids and quirked up an eyebrow.

"You didn't come?" he asked and I just smiled.

"Let me take care of that for you." he said and went down to his knees. I immediately put my hands to his soft hair and guided him in to place. He opened his mouth and I just smirked and pushed in. He started sucking and bobbing his head, circling his tongue and huffing hot air in to my stomach. It didn't take long before I was fucking his mouth with all force and came to his throat, not even bothering to ask could he swallow. He had had a lot of practise, he could manage, I thought.

I slumped on the floor next to him and leaned on the shelves.

"So...Is this your official fucking room?" I asked and he smiled, wiping his mouth.

"Yeah kinda. Nobody comes here any more, there's another closet at the first floor so it's closer.

"So what's the code for this room?" I asked and he looked confused.

"There's gotta be a code. You know for using this room. How do you know that if you want to shag someone that there already isn't someone here? Like sock on the door or something?" His face lid up when he realized what I was talking about.

"Oh yeah. Well if the lights are on then you know it's taken. But if you really want a shag and someone is already here, we can share. " he winked.

I laughed and started to zip my jeans.

"We better get back. But this was one, let's do it again sometime." I said and smiled my wide smile that I knew no one could resist. Like I thought, he smiled widely too and nodded.

"Just let me know."

Author's Notes:

Not feeling like writing ones, sorry.


	5. 5: Day One On The Job

A Lost Cause

 _Day three."_  I thought. " _61 days left."_

I rubbed my eyes and brushed the hair out of my eyes. After yesterdays quick fuck, the rest of the day I spent in my room reading and doing stuff. Mostly I just kept away from people. I went down for dinner and lunch a but went straight up to my room afterward. I told Evert I had a headache and he nodded and left me alone. Lena had given me a bunch of papers, rules and some that I had to sign. I told her I'd ask Hans to come and check them out. She had smiled but I knew that I was starting to irritate her. I knew that it would have been better if I just were nice to her and make her believe that she understood and solved me, but that woman really irritated me. She thought she knew me and could just, I don't know, figure me out. But no one figured me out, I had worked so long and hard for that.

I looked over to the small clock on the table and saw that it was time to go down for breakfast. Quickly I got dressed and went down for breakfast. Almost every seat on the table was occupied, only one left beside Evert and the guy who didn't speak much. Evert looked up, something hopeful in his eyes. I walked past him and sat next to the silent guy. He smiled up to me and gave me a plate.

"Thank you. Alex right`" I asked. He nodded and gave me some bread.

"You really don't talk much don't you." I said. He shook his head.

"Good. I like people like that. "I said and he smiled.

"I've learned that you learn a lot more by being quiet yourself. I'm pretty sure you know everything that is going on in this house." I said and poured myself some juice. I glanced at him and saw that I was right. He first looked a bit tense but a very small smile played on his lips and he looked away.

"You might be useful one day. I can of course give you something in return. Just ask. Or write, what ever is your thing." I said and he nodded seriously.

"Good. " I said and the rest of the time we ate in silence.

Four to nine everyone started to move towards the Hall. I rose with Alex and followed him. He guided me in and I saw that Hall was filled with around 20 small soft benches, all neatly in a line. We sat down on the back of the Hall. Soon everyone had sat down and Lena walked in. The room went immediately silent. I looked around the room and saw that not one of the guys here looked anywhere else than at Lena. I wondered how all these supposedly bad behaving guys were obedient like small lap dogs. What the hell did they do to them here?

Lena walked to the center of the room and looked at everyone over her glasses before she spoke.

"Good morning everyone." she said and everyone answered a good morning to her like some small kids in kindergarten. I didn't open my mouth and she saw it, but didn't react.

"First of all I'd like to introduce our new guest here." she said and looked at me. "If Mr. Simpson would join me in the front of the room please?" she asked. I stood up gracefully and walked with my head held up high. I felt everyone's eyes one as I walked and wondered just why were everyone paying attention to me now, no one had even glanced at me in the breakfast table. It was like now that Lena had introduced me properly, they had the permission to look at me. I walked over to Lena and stood next to her.

"Everyone, this is Cody Simpson. He will stay with us for the next 61 days. Say hello." she said and everyone did so. Every eye were on me, but I didn't make a single move or sign to show anyone that it mattered. I felt Lena looking at me and then realized that this was some kind of test. Lena put me here on purpose to see how I would react. Then what did I expect? Lena was here to heal me, to make me in to a better person. So I just stood there and held eye contact with every guy until they eventually looked away, admitting their defeat. The silence stretched until Lena spoke again.

"You may return to your seat." I said nothing but walked back and sat down.

Alex smiled at me and I nodded to him.

"So today is not going to be anything special, you will continue in the works you did yesterday, except Mr. Wilson you will go from kitchen to cleaning to replace Mr. Yourth. " Lena said and I saw Alex nod next to me.

" _Alex Wilson. Again a familiar name. Are everyone here famous or something?"_ I thought to myself.

"Mr. Simpson, stay behind, everyone else, you may leave." Lena said and everyone rose and left the room. Once everyone were gone and the room was empty, I looked at Lena who was still standing in the front of the room. I knew she wanted me to come and walk to her, but I staid down.

"Mr. Simpson." she started.

"Yes?" Her mouth tightened a bit and I knew it was from not calling her

Ms. Hirsch. I wondered if she was gonna let it go. Apparently she did, because she continued to speak without reminding me.

"Your daily job will be cleaning cars. We run couple small businesses here on the side and one of them is a car cleaning and repairing business. Customers will bring their car here and you will clean it. There is another boy signed to the duties, he is good with cars so listen to him. He will show you how the place works. Obey him." Lena said sternly and I noticed that my behavior started to aggravate her. Which was good.

"Understood?" she asked and I only nodded. "I'll get one of the guys to show you the way." she said and walked out.

"Mr. Ålström! Come here please." she said and sighed a bit. Evert was nice but I needed to get to know some other people too. In the other hand, we might have some time to visit the closet again...  
"Mr. Ålström will show you the way." Lena said and left the room.

"Well hello again." Evert said and leaned on the doorway, a half smile on his lips.

"Hello." I said and walked closer.

"I'm supposed to show you our garage." he said and stepped closer, the door shutting behind him.

"And are you?" I asked. He chuckled and stepped closer again.

"Yeah."

"So sometime during today or?" I asked.

"Are you in a hurry?" he asked and stepped closer, leaving us just two steps apart.

"Maybe." I said.

"Mmm." he said and moved so we were standing around 15 centimeters apart.

"Ever heard of personal space?" I asked and he chuckled.

"You weren't complaining yesterday." he said and to my surprise, there was no sign of hurt or anything in his voice.

"Yeah about that-" I started but he lifted his hands up.

"I know Cody, I know. It was just sex and I get it. No need to give me a big speech." he said and looked at him with a mixture of surprise and amazement. He crooked his head and looked at me impishly.

"Just how thick did you thought I was?" he asked and I laughed and looked down.

"Actually, don't answer that." he continued and I nodded.

"C'mon lover boy, I have things to do." he said and kissed my cheek, before turning on his heals and walking away. I followed him out the room and we walked to the front door. He showed this small white bracelet to an electronic reader on the door and with after a small buzzing sound, the door clicked and Evert stepped out.

"What is that?" I asked and pointed to his bracelet.

"Oh we call them awos.. It comes from the letter combination on the side, here." he said and showed me the small letters and a logo on the side of the bracelet. " It's the company that makes them, but to us it's " _A Way Out._ "" he said and we stepped through the door.

"Does everyone have one?"

"No, you get on if you need to leave the house for daily jobs or something. They're earned really, and Lena is the only one who has the right to sign you one."

"How may of the boys have one?" I asked curious.

"Not many, me, Alex and on some rare occasions the guy you're about to meet, Justin."

"How do you get one?" I asked and Evert looked at me with a knowing smirk.

"I know what you're thinking, forget it right away. You're not getting one in a long time. Ever, if you keep acting the way you. You see, awos are only given to people who actually need them and have been here a while. A long while. And we need to get them when we need them from the office and Kristina checks with Lena every time you go get one. She writes down who has them and when they got them and everything.  _And_ they're behind lock and key, so you can't steal them." he explained as we walked along the side of the house and towards a smaller building. It was made from the same material as the main house, but it was only one storey high and the front was one big door with large windows. The doors were open and I saw that it was a large hall and it looked like a normal car repair shop.

"I wasn't thinking about anything." I said and Evert only snorted.

"Yeah right. Look, many have tried it, only to fail and got punished. And the punishments here are not something like not giving you dessert." he said and frowned.

"Then what are they?" He only glanced at me.

"Hope you don't have to find out." he said quieter. "Anyways here we are! This is our garage and it's mostly run by Justin. Where the hell is he...?" Evert said as we reached the building. He started to look around for this Justin guy, but there was no one to be seen.

"He's an odd guy anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the aliens had taken him." Evert said and walked in, past two new looking cars.

"Justin? You have guests." Evert hollered, his voice echoing a bit." Maybe not the smartest thing to say, he's not that fond of visitors. Or people in that matter." Evert snorted.

"Specially you." came a voice behind us. I spun around, my heart beating a bit faster.

"God dammed Justin! You almost gave me a heart attack. Stop creeping around and walk like normal humans." Evert said and walked to stand next to me.

"Justin this is Cody and Cody Justin." he introduced. I took a good look at the boy standing in front of me. He was couple years older than me, he had brown hair, cut stylishly, but now it was covered in grease and oil, just like his skin. He was wearing a blue overalls, the sleeves tied around his waist, showing his black top underneath. He was muscular, nothing too excessive, but he had a great body, He was wearing gloves and his face showed no emotion.

"Hello." I greeted as he staid silent. He nodded but that was it.

"What is he doing here?" he asked Evert, like I was not even in the room.

"He's working for you. Lena's orders." Evert answered for me. Justin nodded again, his frowning slightly.

"Awesome." he said and brushed past us and walked to the back of the room. I could judge from the tone of his voice that he really wasn't happy about this arrangement.

"Don't worry, he's like that to everyone. You know grumpy cat?" Evert asked and I nodded.

"He's kinda like a human version from that. Talks little and usually what comes out is not worth listening to." Evert said and I nodded again. He then clapped his hands together and said:

"All righty then. I will get going and have fun! Justin treat Cody nicely will ya?" There was no answer. "If I were you, I wouldn't get my hopes up." Evert said to me and then nodded and walked out. I was left there standing and wondering what I was supposed to do. I heard noises from the back of the room, so I turned around and walked over there. I saw Justin picking out some tools from the table that covered the whole back wall. On the table were small boxes that were all neatly labeled, " _screws"_ ,  _"bolts"_ and stuff like that. On the back wall hanged every kind of tool and machine I have never seen in my life.

Justin had his back facing me and was going through the small boxes and taking things out and putting them back. I slowly walked closer until I reached the table and leaned to it casually. He didn't react in any way, just kept going through the boxes. I had no idea what to say and he didn't look like he was going to start the conversation. Then he moved back and walked over to a car that had its hood open. He laid the tools in his hands down, stuffing some to his pockets. Then he started screw something, making no sign that he acknowledged my presence. I blew air out through my nose and thought that this was so stupid. If he wasn't going to be the one to talk, then I was going to have to.

"So." I started. He didn't react in any way. Somehow he made me feel very awkward, just like I was seven again and trying to talk to a very cute girl for the first time. I was not having this, I was 16 and been through things and I could do this. He was nobody.

"So you work on cars?" I asked and flinched when it came out, realizing how dumb it sounded.

"Yup." he answered. Well of course he worked on cars, we were in a fucking garage.

"So..How old are you?" I asked and mentally hit myself."

"I'm 19." he said and switched to another tool.

"Oh..You look older." I said and he didn't reply.

"Are you from around here?" I asked and walked over to the car.

"Not really." he said and took another tool from his pocket.

"Me neither. I'm from Australia actually." I said and he didn't react. What was wrong with this guy?

"So um-"

"Look. " he interrupted me, turning to face me.

"I don't care where you are from, how old you are or what kind of shit you did to get here, all I want is for you to shut up and let me do my job okay?" he said and even thought his voice was steady and he wasn't shouting or anything, I flinched a bit and was taken aback.

"Okay." I said and pulled myself together.

"Then tell me what I'm supposed to here." I said, trying to match his tone of voice but didn't succeed.

"Just stay out of my way and shut up." he said and walked back to the table.

"Okay. Fine." I huffed and walked to the front of the garage. I spotted a small pink bench and sat down on it, wrapping my cardigan tighter around me. Why I haven't taken a jacket, I cursed to myself. I looked back at Justin, but he was doing something under the hood again. I sighed and looked at my clock, it was just past ten. I sighed again and leaned my head to my hand.

Time went by slowly as a snail. Justin didn't speak to me all morning and I returned the favor. I sat on the small pink chair, looking at the manor and cursing mu life down the furthest gates of hell. Finally, after freezing my balls of for the past three hours, the manor door opened and Evert stepped out. He walked over to me and I watched the grace and small swing of his hips when he walked. When he reached me, he smiled widely and looked over to where Justin was under the car.

"Had a nice day?" he asked.

"Very." He chuckled and leaned on the wall.

"You get a long nicely?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"What does it look like?"

"Did he make you work your ass off all day?"

"No. "

"So you've been sitting here the whole day?" he asked smiling.

"Yeah."

"C'mon, don't look like that babe! You should be glad that you don't have to work the whole day." he said and patted me on the shoulder.. I only stared at him silently and he laughed.

"Let's go guys, dinner is ready." Evert said and I got up sighing. I was freezing and hungry so dinner sounded perfect. I got up and walked towards the manor with Evert. I heard Justin follow us couple steps behind, so I couldn't really complain or ask about Justin from Evert. We walked in a silence and Evert showed the bracelet to the reader on the manor front door.

"Wait so, we can't get it without that thing?"

"It's not a thing, it's an awo."

"What ever."

"No actually Justin." Evert said and pulled the door open. I tried to walk in, but he took a hold of elbow and raised his eyebrows. Justin stopped behind me and Evert nodded him to go in already. Justin only looked at me for a second and then stomped in. Evert then closed the door in front of me, when I tried to get in.

"So the thing is that you have to learn the slang here. Believe me, it will make your life a lot easier." he said and looked at him questioningly.

"What are you talking about?" He took a deep breath and then started.

"You have to learn the ways and words we use, and I mean us boys here, and then the ones the staff uses. It will just make it easier to you, the guys will accept you sooner, when you know how the House works. And I know you might think that you don't need anyone here but the truth is that you do. You won't make this alone. " he said and I was surprised the way he looked at me, his gaze holding mine with an iron grip.

"Okay, I get it." I only said.

"No I don't think you do. You don't know..." he started but then looked down, furrowing his eyebrows. He then seemed to get himself together and looked up again.

"You don't know how this place works. You think you can just walk in here and act like you own this place and that you can do what ever the hell you want. It doesn't work like that." he said slowly, holding eye contact tightly.

"Ookay Evert-"

"No shut up! You can't just piss everyone here and specially Lena off and ecpect everything to be okay! There are..." he stopped to think. "In the Red House, there are sanctions there are c _onsequences_. Things like that backfire here. You are not gonna get away with it just like that." he said, his eyes burning to mine.

"Okay I get it. I'll behave." I said in a lower voice.

"Okay. I just...Don't want you to get hurt." he said, turned and opened the door. We got in and my mind was racing. Consequances, sanctions, things backfiring, punishments? What was all this Evert was talking about. Getting hurt? How could I get hurt in here, this was just a normal boys group home, a normal manor. What bad could happen to me here?

Author's Notes:

Yaaaa they met! Nothing special but this fic is moving along. Love you who read the chapter.

If you feel like asking me something – anything really, there are no dumb questions, feel very free to contact me with the following options:

Twitter - neongiraffeblog

Tumblr - neongiraffeblog

– neongiraffe

Love ya!

 


	6. 6. Codes

A Lost Cause

Chapter 6; Codes

I sat in the table and watched every single person sitting there. There was 13 guys in here, including me and I knew three by name. I looked at Alex, who had sat down next me with a smile, Evert, who was talking to a guy with chocolate skin, short curly hair with the tips dyed blond, big pouty lips and dark brown eyes. He was my age I guessed, maybe older, but totally hot. I smirked to myself, I was not going to get bored or run out of options here.

I looked at Justin, who was sitting opposite of me, avoiding any kind of contact with anyone. He didn't look up from the empty plate he had been staring for a while now, didn't even accidentally touch the people sitting next to him. He did not just keep to himself, he just really didn't care about anyone around him.

My eyes moved from one face to another, I saw mostly laughter and happiness, then couple exceptions who just sat there with a blank normal face.

"So the thing is that you have to learn the slang here." I repeated Evert's words. The slang? If there was a slang then that meant there were people who invented that slang and kept it going.

So for example, the American slang was invented in the 1920's, in the "roaring twenties", to add identity to the younger generations and to drive their parents mad. So basically teenager rebellion. The first slang was made in the 1765, to make a special vocabulary for tramps and thieves. So what did we learn here?

Slangs were made partly because people wanted to stand out, partly because nowadays people are lazy and partly to disguise at they wanted to say. Sometimes slangs worked like codes. In the raging twenties youths used words that their parents didn't know and that of course pissed their folks up.

So knowing the slang, is knowing the codes and codes are the key to everything. Knowing the slang, I knew what people were talking about and knew what happened behind Lena's watching eyes. When I knew that, I would slowly make my way to the inner circle. So Evert was right, I needed to learn the slang.

I looked around again and tried to figure out who was the leader of this group. There must be someone who knew it all, who in his own way ran this place. Even in a place like this, as strict and controlling as Lena was, there still were some kind of inside circles here. I mean there had to be, all of these guys weren't here to learn how to bake cupcakes or learn to sow, every single one in this table did something bad. Everyone had a history. Surely these kind of guys didn't just let a middle aged woman to tell them what to do and how to run their lives. These guys all did something to end up here.

I was sure the leader was not Evert, he was too much of a flirt, definitely not Alex, unless they all had some secret sign language that I hadn't noticed, and I had a feeling it wasn't Justin either. He was too quiet and kept to himself, you can't lead a bunch of guys without having no contact with them. Suddenly the room went silent as Lena walked in. She stopped in front of the table and everyone stood up in silence. I followed their example and she took a small metal object from her pocket. It was shaped as a tape measure, and had a little round shaped button on one side of it. Lena put her thumb on the button and looked at the first guy standing at the edge of the table. She pushed the button and a metallic click noise echoed in the room. She did the same with every guy, looked them in the eye and pushed the button. When she was done, she looked down at the object and nodded to herself.

"You may be seated." she said and then there was suddenly movement and the room filled with noises and talk, the starching aching silence long gone.

"You just survived your first counting. Congratulations." I suddenly heard a voice next to my ear. I looked to my right and saw the chocolate skinned guy sitting next to me. He smiled to me and I smiled back.

"Umm thanks I guess?" I said and he chuckled.

"I'm Jaden by the way, Jaden Smith." he said and held out his hand and I took it. Our eyes locked and I was startled a bit by his dark brown eyes, which radiated warmth.

"I'm Cody Simpson." I said and he let go of my hand.

"Nice to meet you Cods. Ah finally food!" he exclaimed as some of the guys brought plates and pans to the table. He started to put food on his plate and I followed his example.

"So what was that thing Lena used?" I asked Jaden. He looked at me amused.

"You got some nerve dude." he said and shook his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Calling her Lena. She'd do bad things if she heard you calling her anything other than Mr. Hirsch. " Jaden said smiling.

"What is this, Hogwards? Like with Voldemort I cant say her name, but have to call her You-Know-Who?" I chuckled. Jaden laughed with me but shook his head again.

"Something like that. Just don't rub her the wrong way, You'll get in trouble. But anyways, the thing is the Counter. She uses it to count that everyone are on meals and then in the evening when we go to bed. " Jaden explained.

"Oh okay. She can't just use her head to count or something?" I asked and Jaden gave me another amused look, but with a slight question in his eyes.

"You really are quite something Cods. I like you." he said and patted me on the back. I smiled and he laughed.

Dinner ended and I sighed and got up. I glanced at Justin who made his way towards the door and knew that I had another five hours or so to sit on that damn pink chair. I walked to the front door and saw Justin standing next to it, staring outside from a window. I was little confused on why he hasn't gone outside. I wanted to ask him but I wasn't sure if he'd answer. I bit my lip and asked anyways.

"Aren't we going back to work?" He didn't make any sign on acknowledging that I was there. For a moment he was just silent and I thought I had been right about the not answering part.

"Need to wait for Ever or someone." he said after a long pause.

"Why?" He pointed at the reader on the door.

"Someone needs to let us out." he said, still keeping his eyes on the distance.

"I thought you had an awo." I said and he actually looked at me for couple of seconds. I saw a very quick flash of amusement in his eyes, but couldn't understand why.

"You're a quick learner." he said and I was confused.

"Pardon?"

"Awo? You're learning the slang." he said and turned to look from the window again.

"Yeah, Evert told me. He said it was important to learn the slang." I said and stepped closer to Justin. He hummed and I took it as a yes.

"Did you fuck him already?" he asked and caught me of guard. I didn't even have time to comprehend what he asked before he spoke again,

"Stupid question, of course you did. " he said it like he just stated a fact, nothing mocking or hurtful in his voice.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, an edge of anger in my voice. He looked at me, his eyes looking at me from head to toe.

"I know guys like you Cody. " he said and turned back to the window.

"Oh and what am I like?" I asked and stepped closer, my tone of voice sharp. Who did this guy think he was? He only looked at me again before turning back to the window.

"You're a slut. Basically." he said with a steady voice, like he had just told me that it wasn't going to rain today.

"Excuse me?" I asked totally baffled.

"I think you heard me." he said, not even glancing at me, he just kept looking out from the window.

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked, my voice raising.

"I don't have one." he sighed and looked just plain bored. Suddenly something snapped inside me and I felt anger starting to boil inside me. I stepped next to him while he was still facing the window.

"If you have something to say, then say it." I gritted through my teeth. He sighed again, put his hands to his overall pockets and turned to me. He looked at me with a bored expression, took another deep breath and then spoke.

"I already said it. You're a slut." he said and then I lost it. I took him by the collar of his overall, squeezed the fabric in to my fists and pushed him back against the wall rather violently. He didn't even flinch.

"Who the hell do you think you are-"

"Hey hey what's going on here?" I heard someone shout. I didn't even look towards where the sound came from, only pushed Justin harder against the wall. Then I felt someone's hand on my shoulders, pulling me away. When I didn't move, the hands wrenched hard and pulled me back. I stumbled couple steps back and looked at the intruder. It was Jaden. I looked at him and then at Justin and realized that I had made a huge mistake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jaden hissed and looked around to check that no one saw us. The corridors leading to Lena's office, to the dining room and the stairs were empty.

"Are you totally nuts?" Jaden asked me again and I took a deep breath and pushed my hair that had fallen to my eyes back and righted my cardigan. I looked at Justin who was still against the wall, leaning in to it casually, straightening his overalls too. He looked at me with the same bored and emotionless expression. His faced showed nothing. I looked at him baffled, he reminded me of those mannequins in the shop, just a plastic, motionless face.

"Answer the fucking question!" Jaden finally snapped at me when I didn't answer.

"I...I umm.."

"Yeah I umm. Don't you know that fighting here gets you in some serious trouble? If Lena finds out, she'll send you to the Box in half a second." Jaden said and looked around again.

"The Box?" I asked confused.

"I'll explain you later, now get the hell out of here before anyone sees us!" Jaden said and showed his awo to the door reader. Justin stalked out from the door without saying anything. I stood there a moment before Jaden rushed me out.

"C'mon move move go out. I'll walk with ya." he said and we stepped out from the door.

"What the were you thinking? It's like you want Lena to cut your balls off? Because I'm telling ya, she will." Jaden said as we walked across the yard.

"I don't know. I just..I don't know." I tried to explain but to be honest, didn't know what happened myself.

"Hey man c'mon. Stop for a minute." Jaden said and grabbed my elbow. I sighed and stopped and turned to look at him.

"Cods, you can't pull shit like that. There are some serious punishments here for people who can't keep it in their pants." he said looked at me and I was pretty sure I saw a very small hint of worry in his eyes.

"So sex isn't allowed here?" I asked him. He smirked and shook his head.

"I knew you and Evert banged already. He is a lucky son of a bitch " he said and I chuckled.

"You jealous?" I smirked.

"Okay Evert might only think with his dick but I'm not that easy. You need to put some work in to it." he said and winked. Then his face turned back to serious. "But seriously, you want to keep it clean here. I've been in the box and that's not a place where you want to find yourself in." he said and his eyes filled with hurt and maybe a hint of fear.

"What is the Box?"

"Oh it's like the isolation cells in prison ya know? You're there like 23 hours of the day, every meal is delivered there and you live in this three by three meter room made from concrete and there's only one small window and it's bad. You don't wanna end up there man, you really don't." Jaden explained and his eyes strayed to look somewhere far in the distance. Then he snapped out of it and turned towards the garage.

"C'mon man, you need to get to work. And promise me that you keep your hands off of him okay?" he asked and I nodded.

"I'll try." I said as we reached the garage.

"Okay see you in the evening, I'll come and let you in. See ya man." he said and clapped my back.

"Okay bye."

I didn't even try to talk to Justin this time. I just sat down on the little pink chair and wrapped my cardigan tighter around me. Justin didn't seem to mind, he kept working on the cars. I heard the faint noises of metal hitting metal and the concrete floor every now and then. I heard the ruffle from his overalls and when he dropped something on the floor. Neither of us talked anything the time we were there.

Finally around four hours later, the manor door opened and I saw Evert walking out, He made his way towards us and I looked at my shoes.

"Your first day is over. Did it go well?" Evert asked when he reached me.

"Are you kidding?" He frowned.

"Sitting on your ass all day isn't the worst thing to do." I looked up at him and smiled.

"So you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Your little golden angle boy got his hands on me." I heard a voice behind me. I looked back and saw Justin taking his gloves off.

"Excuse me?" I asked him and stood up from the chair

"What?" Evert asked confused, his brows knitting up.

"You're gonna punch me this time?" he asked but not in a mocking tone, he asked it like it was a genuine question, like he really wanted to know. It was odd, I felt the anger starting to come up again.

"You punched him?" Evert asked, his voice creeping higher.

"No I didn't-"  
"He came close." Justin said and started to take his overalls off. I squeezed my hands in to tight fists and took a deep breath in.

"What?" Evert cried out. . "Don't you know what kind of huge trouble you could have gotten in to if Lena saw you-"

"Okay what is wrong with you guys here? You have like no spine and you're all so scared of Lena. She's nothing." I interrupted. Evert went silent and just looked at me. Justin stopped unbuttoning his overalls and looked at me for a second but then continued. The silent stretched.

"What?" I asked. Justin threw his overalls to the coat hanger and walked towards the house.

"You don't know this house, you don't know the rules and the consequences here to say those kind of things." Evert said and didn't quite meet my eyes.

"Everyone are talking about consequences and rules and bad things happening but I haven't seen anything yet. Lena hasn't said anything to me and I don't think she will. She won't brake me." I said to Evert and he only shrugged.

"We should get back in. Food is waiting." he said and turned around. What was wrong with these guys? It's like they lost their balls with their spines.

I only sighed and followed Evert, my anger dying. Justin was leaning against the door frame outside the door and looked somewhere beyond the forest. I frowned at him and thought that this wasn't over with him.

Author's Notes:

So couple new characters. Well one, Jaden Smith as himself in this fic. And Alex's last name changes from this on, it's gonna be Watson, because I realized that Emma Watson has a really hot brother. So google him. It really sucks that I can't add pics to the chapters in or links.

And for BESTBeadlesBro on Twitter who asked me if well I'm gonna quote her here:

"neongiraffeblogSo is it Justin Bieber the famous singer or is he just a regular guy "

I said to her that it's gonna come up in this chapter and that I was writing the same time but sorry it didn't come up yet! It didn't quite fit here so it that question will be answered very soon! Probably in like the next chapter or the one after that idk yet.

Theeeeeee I want to thank Vereana (check her out on Twitter coudstin) who made the awesome cover pic for ALC! I love it!

Then thanks to anyone who made it this far, I just compared the stats of ALC anc CCC and Chocolate Chip Cookies has been read over 57 000 times and this 750 so thanks for reading! I actually like this fic better so I really hope other people do too!

Okay I think I'm done here.

More dark and twisted turns coming up!


	7. 7: Play With Me

A Lost Cause

Chapter 7;

I walked with Evert back to inside. Our daily jobs were done for the day and the clock was around 8, it was time for the evening meal. So many thoughts were crossing through my head, I had so much to think about and I just wanted to be alone have some time to clear this thing up. There was Jaden and Justin and Evert and rules and everyone scared of Lena and The Box and...

I shook my head and sat down next to Alex, He wouldn't bother me with questions. I poked my empty plate and was lost in my thoughts. There was way too many people and the room was too small and loud to really sort them out. I groaned quietly out of frustration and put down my fork. Alex glanced at me and I just shook my head.

"Shame you don't talk. You could tell me all about this cursed place." I said quietly to him and he smiled.

"But tell me this -. just nod or whatever but... Is Lena really that bad? Is it true about what the guys talk about her?" I asked and watched as the smile faded of his face and he looked at his plate. He seemed to think hard for a moment, and then turned back to me. He looked at me intently with his brown eyes. He seemed to almost measure me with his eyes, they scanned over my face and he seemed to think really hard. Then he sighed, dropped his fork and reached for something in his pocket. He took out a blue notebook, opened it and it had s pen inside it. He took one last hard look at me, before he pushed the tip of the pen on the paper and started to write something. I watched him as he wrote and soon he slid the notebook the small space between us on the table.

"What do you want to know?" it read. I looked at him surprised.

"So you do talk? In a way" He smiled, took the notebook back and wrote something.

"In a way yes. So?" I looked at the reply and then him.

"Well I want to know a lot, so you better warm up that wrist of yours so you won't get a tenosynovitis." I said and he just smiled.

"I'm not going to write down everything silly. I have other ways to commutate you know." he wrote and when I had read it, he took the notebook back.

"Like what ways? Can you do like telepathy?"

"I knew you were just a stupid blond. No of course not." he wrote and showed it to me. I took a sharp exaggerated breath in.

"Well you're a cheeky bastard. " I answered and he just smiled widely." So what ways? D'you have some kind of typing machine?" I asked and he gave me a pointed look.

"Yes, It's called a phone dummy. I type faster than you pick a girl in the club." he wrote and I laughed.

"Oh Alex, I do really like you." I said and clapped his back. He smiled at me and then suddenly the room fell silent.

"All raise boys." I heard Lena's voice. She was standing in the doorway with the Counter. She put her finger on the button, looked every guy in the eye and clicked it. The metallic clicks echoed around the room. The silence was heavy, weighting down on everyone. I saw some of the guys actually hunch down, their shoulders pressing down, clutching their hands in front of them.

When she was done, she walked to the end of the table and sat down. She looked at everyone and then said:

"You may begin." The room filled with sounds again, just like last time. The effect she had on the boys was unbelievable. How she did, I had no idea, but I was going to figure it out.

The meal was over soon, I had no energy to try to watch people or study them. I had too much information in my head. As soon as we were excused, I left the table and nodded Alex to come and join me. He nodded back and leaded us out form the room, up the wooden stairs to the third floor. Instead of going to the right where I lived, he turned left and I followed him. We walked to the end of the corridor and Alex stopped in front of a room that had the number 1 in it.

"You have it good, living in the first room." I said and he smiled and opened the door. His room was the same as mine, but he had a lot more personal items in it. He had photos and paintings, an MP3 player, his own counterpane; it was made from different coloured and shaped patches. I walked in to the room and shamelessly looked around. One thing that told me a lot about a person was the space he was comfortable in, the things he or she liked in that space, the colour choices, everything really. I walked over to a table that was next to a large mirror, it had some bottles on top of it. I picked one up and saw that it was his cologne. I lifted it up and looked at the label. It was very expensive I noted and put the bottle down. I turned around and looked around again.

"You're analysing me by my room aren't you?" I suddenly heard a monotonic male voice coming from behind me. I spun around and saw Alex smiling and holding out his phone. He then typed something and the voice spoke again.

"It's an app .Quite useful really." the phone spoke and I nodded and took a shaky breath in.

"You really scared me there. And I thought you'd be the only one that wouldn't bother me with words." I said and turned back to examining the room.

"Sorry about that. But your face was priceless. "a male voice spoke. I snickered but didn't turn around. "it has a female one too, if you prefer them." the monotonic voice spoke again, but this time it was a higher female voice. I turned around smiling and Alex just looked at me sheepishly. I looked at him and decided that I could play with him a bit, see what kind of guy he was.

"No I prefer dicks. Or were we talking about that?" I said and stepped closer to him and winked. It had no effect on him.

"Seriously? You're just going to come to my room and start flirting with me? I thought Evert was giving you some already." the male voice was back. I stepped closer until I was standing right in front of him.

"Well is it working? I mean we are alone and everything." I said and lifted my finger up, touched his chest and slid down on it slowly. He just shook his head and typed something. And he wasn't lying about typing fast; it looked like his fingers were flying on top of the touch screen of his phone, words appearing after another, making sentences in just a few short seconds. I figured he had a lot of practise in this.

"No it's not working. Get your hands off me you little slut. I'm not that easy for fucks sake." the male voice spoke in a steady voice but Alex was smiling.

"Wow watch your language boy, you have a dirty tongue. But in the other hand, that might not be such a bad thing." I said and slid my finger down, finding his belt loops and hooked my finger to it, letting the weight of my hand rest on it. He shook his head again and typed.

"You're even worst that I thought. Keep your dick in your pants." he said and I chuckled. I wondered if I should push it a bit more, deciding why not. I leaned forward and let my lips hover just above the skin on his neck.

"Oh but that wouldn't be fun at all wouldn't it? And I apologize, maybe you're more of a romantic." I said, leaned back and moved my head opposite of his, now speaking just above his lips.

"If beauty were time, you'd be eternity." I said and smiled. Alex just looked at me for a moment and then bursted out laughing. I was surprised for two reasons, one, he could actually make noises, two, why was he laughing, that was a really good pick up line.

He kept laughing and walked over to his bed, collapsing on to it, still laughing. I laughed too and sat next to him on the bed. The lasts laughs shook his body and then he stopped and lifted his hands behind his head. He looked at me for a while and I looked back.

"I'm hurt actually. That was a really good pick up line. I've gotten laid so many times because of that." I said and he chuckled. He reached for his phone and quickly typed.

"I told you I wasn't that easy."

"I guess you're not. But I like the chase." I said and poked him in the side. He chuckled and poked me back. I lied down on the bed next to him and we stayed silent.

"You didn't answer my question." the male voice spoke. I turned my head and looked at Alex.

"What question?"

"I asked you if you were analysing me by my room."

"Oh that. Yes I was. I wasn't really subtle wasn't I?"

"No not really. And I'm smarter than you think. So what did you find?"

I rose up and walked around his room.

"You really want to know?"  
"Yes. Just to bring you down on earth and show you that you're really not as smart as you think you are. "he said and I laughed.

"What if I get everything right and actually am really smart?"

"I believe it when I see it."

"Well hold on because you're about to be blown away!" I said and started to walk around the room again.

"You're a cocky peace of shit."

"And don't forget smart and good looking."

"Just shut up and get on to it already will ya?"

"Fine." I said and looked around once more. "You have a lot of blue here. The photo frame, your brush, that painting, you have a lot of blue clothes... Blue means something to you. And the shade is even more important. All of your blue things here are a light shade of blue; there is not one dark blue here. So what does blue represent to you?" I asked and looked at him for the first time. He only quirked an eyebrow and typed.

"I thought that's what you're supposed to tell me. And what if I just happen to like blue?" I laughed and shook my head.

"Well it could be like that, I agree. Normally when a person likes a colour, he or she likes almost every shade of that colour, but you, you seem to avoid any shade of darker blue. All the shades I can see are pale light blues. It seems like you're almost avoiding, hiding from the darker shades. I mean you have pillows on your bed that are dark blue from the other side, but you chose to use the other side that is light blue. Looking at your closet, there is exactly one shirt that is dark blue, but you have folded it to be on a shelve, unlike all of your other shirts that are hanging from a hanger! I'd guess that you got that as a present from someone you love and can't throw it away for that reason.

All the rooms are same here and I have so decorations glass rocks in that vase by the window, but you have taken them out.

That tells me two things, one, there is a reason why you don't like dark blues, two there is a reason why you like light blues." I said and looked at him. His face didn't tell me much.

"I'm listening." I smiled widely, starting to enjoy this. I was pacing around the room, thinking, making summations, wrecking my brain.

"So for the first question, why do you avoid darker blues? You're avoiding it so determinately that I'm pretty sure it must be some physical thing, something concrete that you don't like, not just a feeling that surfaces when you look at that colour. There's something bigger behind it.

So what things are dark blue? Well the first thing I'd think would be the ocean. Am I right?"

Alex huffed and typed:

"So specially the ocean, not a lake or a pool?"I laughed out loud, a real good laugh.

"Yes! Specifically the ocean! You know why? Because pools and lakes aren't really as deep blue as the big, deep, endless ocean- they are light blue! So why don't you like the ocean? Well only one thing can explain that, you don't like water. Why don't you like water? Well that's really simple, something happened to you or someone you cared for in the water. I'm right aren't I?" I asked enthusiastically.

Alex looked at me a long while, biting his lip, tilting his head to the side. Then he leaned down and typed slowly, pausing every now and then.

"When I was 9, I we went to the ocean shore. I had once of those huge yellow floating duck things and my mum told me that it would float me no matter what. I floated further and further from the shore and somehow I managed to punch a hole in to the duck and it emptied. I almost drowned."

There was a long silence. I looked at him and he looked at me.

"This is the part where you say "I told you so:"". I only huffed and looked down.

"I'm cruel but I'm not heartless." I said quietly, eyes on my shoes. There was a long silence. When I looked up I saw that Alex was looking at his hands. I was quite sure that he was reliving the moments of being pulled underwater, not being able to breath. He suddenly looked up, like he had felt my eyes on him. He quickly composed himself, but not really moving his body, he stayed in the same position, resting against the headboard, but I saw as he pushed the memories somewhere deep inside and pulled himself back to this moment.

"So what about number two?" he asked.

"Oh why you like light blues? Well you have a lot of it here, so I'd say that it's something you really adore, something…big I guess. Something that when you look at it, it makes you feel better, reminds you of something better, something you can look and forget about things. And there are not that many big light blue things. First one I'd think is the sky. "I finished and Alex laughed.

"You are good at this."

"Yeah I am. So why the sky?" I asked and walked over to his bed, falling on to it on my back.

"When I was floating there, my arms and legs getting tired, knowing I couldn't keep paddling for much longer, I looked up. The sky was light blue, no clouds, just big and open and….comforting. I thought that if this is where I die then..., this really wasn't the worst last thing to see. "

I nodded and looked at the ceiling of the bed.

"It reminds you of freedom doesn't it? You can just look up and it goes on forever, never stops, no matter how far you look, no matter how long. And it's always there, I mean… if an atom bomb went off, the sky would still be there." I said, talking more to myself.

I felt Alex's surprise, even though I couldn't see his face.

"Yea. It will always be there."

We fell in to a comfortable silence. I looked at the ceiling, Alex was just sitting there, both deep in our thoughts. The silent went on for a long time.

"You're a neat freak." I suddenly said.

"What?"

"Another thing I analysed about you. "

"And how's that? My room isn't really that tidy" he said and was absolutely right. He had clothes on top of the chair, hygiene products scattered on the table beside the mirror.

"You are one of those people I call undercover neat freaks. On the first look you seem like a semi messy person, but in reality you are a perfectionist." I said, looking at the ceiling, feet dangling over the edge of the bed, rolling my ankles in circles.

"Explain."

"You made your bed and its perfect, there is not one hair on your brush and I'm pretty sure that you style your hair every morning so naturally there would have to be hair in it but it seems that you clean it very often. Your flip flops are neatly in front of the bed, which is a bit odd if you think about it, you get up in the morning, get dressed but not leave the flip flops to the place where you get dressed, which would logically be in front of the closet, near the mirror. So you walked back to the bed and put the shoes there, making sure that they are in straight line, right next to each other." I said with a small smug smirk playing on my lips.

"And the best one; you've been eyeing your cologne bottle the whole time I've been here. Even though the hygiene things belong in the bathroom and you have it there on the table, they actually are in size order. When I first walked in, I moved your cologne bottle and you've been glancing at it repeatedly. It really bothers you that it's not where it belongs doesn't it?" I asked and lifted myself on my elbows. Alex smirked at me but nodded.

"didn't even realize how much." he said and I chuckled.

"So will you suck my dick now? Since I was right?" I asked and laid back on the bed. I heard him laugh.

"Absolutely not."

"thought so."

Author's Notes;

So this chapter is short for a reason. And that's because I thought that it quite heavy to read and just decided to cut it. The purpose of this chapter is to show just how smart Cody is. Hope I didn't put you off with this chapter! This is just calm before the storm, shit is gonna get cray cray in a minute.

Hope you stick along with me!

Just a friendly reminder to check all my other work (=other fic, two one shots so far in total haha), you can find them in by clicking my neon green giraffe face, or my blog on tumblr neongiraffeblog oooor then archiveofourown by neongiraffe, on wattpad by the same name.

Please follow me on twitter! I tweet quite often telling my progress regarding these fics, if I publish something complete new and stuff.

So neongiraffeblog on twitter! Follow me and I'll do the same to you!

Love ya aaaalll!


	8. 8. Name

A Lost Cause  
Chapter 8; Name

“A name is something you are given, something that you have to either live up to, or shy away from.”  
-neongiraffe

The silence fell again upon us. I was pretty sure Alex was going through all the things I said, finding that I was more right than he ever thought.  
“We never did what we came here to do.” I said.  
“You’re not banging me.” he answered and I laughed and rolled over to my stomach on the bed.  
“That’s not what I meant.”  
“Oh I thought that you used whatever the weak and shady excuse was to get me alone and do me.”  
“You’re so romantic. No wonder I fell in love with you.” I said sarcastically and he laughed.   
“No I asked you about Lena.” I said and his face fell immediately.  
“oh okay.”  
“What’s the deal with her? I mean every time she does as little as shows up or I say her name, everyone go all silent and dark.” I said and Alex looked at his hands.  
“I mean, what does she do to people here?” I asked. I saw Alex physically collect himself and look at me but his eyes were sad. He looked at me for a second before he started typing. His fingers didn’t move as fast on the screen as before, he was slowing down on purpose.  
“One thing you have to understand is that she is very smart. I mean she has the IQ of four normal people or something.” the voice on the phone spoke and I waited it to continue but nothing came.  
“And?”  
“Well... You asked what she does to people here. Well it’s individual really, depending on the person. “ The voice went silent and I kept starting at Alex.  
“I’m very smart too Alex, I have the IQ of five normal people. And right now you are just telling me a whole lot of nothing.” I said and Alex sighed.  
“People are sent here because something is wrong with them, they can’t behave, have problems. But not that sort of problems that you can see, they’re hidden underneath layers of money and good suits.”  
“Wait wait wait. So are you telling me that everyone here are rich and come from good families?” I asked.  
“Yes they do. They don’t send just anyone here; this is a special place for special people.” he typed and I nodded and took everything in.  
“Go on.”  
“The people in here all have done bad things. Really bad things. Your car theft thing is nothing, and I mean nothing. Some people in here have…done some things people don’t even want to talk about so they get shoved here” I looked at him curiously.  
“And we have a silent, unspoken rule in here; you don’t ever ask what someone has done. It’s their own business, and unless they want to tell, you don’t ask. Do you understand me? You do not ask. You’ll only get beat up.” he typed and as I listened, he held my eyes, and I saw just how serious he was.  
“Okay I won’t ask.”  
“Good. You may be smart but you still have a lot to learn.”  
”So what about Lena?”  
”Why are you so interested in her?”  
“She thinks she’s so smart. Like she can figure and break me and make me a good golden boy.” I shrugged and was surprised to hear Alex laugh. It wasn’t a genuine laugh; it was more hollow, empty, and almost evil.  
“And you’re convinced she can’t?”  
“Positive.”  
“You’ll be disappointed.” he typed but I only held my chin up and lifted and eyebrow.  
“We’ll see then shall we.”  
“Yes.”  
“You still haven’t told me anything about her. What does she actually do here?”  
“She is the main teacher kind of thing here. She is in charge of your and everyone else’s treatment and it’s her job that after the time that you are spent here, you’ll walk out of here as a person who can fit the society again.”  
“And what is that in practice?”  
“She holds the therapy lessons. Well we call them PL:s, private lessons, we have some group things too. So basically you are in a room with her and you talk.” I waited him to elaborate but he didn’t.  
“Just talk?”  
“Yes.”  
“Nothing else?”  
“No.”  
“So you spend a certain amount of time in a room with her and then she just magically turns you in to a normal and good behaving citizen?”  
“Yes.” I huffed dismissively and rolled my eyes.  
“You don’t believe she can do it.” Alex more stated than asked. He had an expression on that looked a mix of disbelief and amusement.  
“No I really don’t.”   
“Any why’s that?. Oh wait, let me analyze you for a second.” he said and sat up straighter. I lifted a brow and told him to go for it.  
“You think you are really smart, and I won’t deny that you aren’t, I know you are a lot smarter than me and that I went to a lot more school than you did. You’d beat me in any activity that required any brainwork. You think that nothing and no one can beat you, no one can figure you out, no one can make sway and lose your balance, you are rooted to the ground, no one can brake you. You think that she can’t get to you, that she can’t get inside your head and change you. You think that you’ll be able to cheat her, be able to lie to her, maybe even fool her. But you can’t. No one can.” Alex finished. I stared at him, wondering. He was looking down, frowning, lips pressed together and I saw that he was biting the inside of his cheek. I realized something just then. I leaned closer and asked with a small voice, begging him to tell me. I needed to know what was going on in this house. I knew I wouldn’t get that many chances, Alex was a person who knew how to act right and hide whatever he felt he needed to hidden. I wouldn’t get opportunities to see him open, vulnabrle like this. I needed to use this moment.   
“Why are you so scared to her? What did she do to you?” His eyes snapped to me and for a moment there was utter honest fear in his eyes. He looked absolutely terrified, a small boy sitting on his bed, clutching to a pillow, beginning for someone to help him. Then he realized his slip. He collected himself just like a son of some big corprerte that had been told how to act right his whole life – how to stay tough, how to hide everything and stay silent even when you are screaming inside. The fleeing moment of weakness, the slight crack of the door was gone. The door closed and just like I expected he’d answer, he typed:  
“Nothing.” I knew that the moment was gone and that he wouldn’t tell me anymore. I looked at him a second longer before let it go and got up from the bed.   
“Fine. I think it’s time for evening counting. I will see you tomorrow.” I said and nodded. He did the same and I walked out. I closed the door and looked at the knob for a moment. Then I lifted my head and walked to my room. When I reached it, the clock was just about to hit 9 and I just sat on my bed and waited for some kind of sign that the counting was about to start. Soon enough a bright light caught my eye. It was a small lamp, the size of a butter jar and it burned blue. It reminded me of the lamps on top of police cars. I looked at the lamp, I haven’t noticed it before. I got up from my bed and walked under the lamp and examined it. I smile appeared on my face and walked out from the door. 

I saw that every boy was out from their rooms, standing in front of their doors like soldiers. They looked straight forward, face blank. I followed their example and stood in front of my own door. There were 6 rooms in this floor, three on my side of the hallway and three on the other. The doors were opposite of each other, so I found myself looking at Jaden. He smiled and I returned it.

There was a fifteen minutes of just silence and I presumed it was because of Lena was checking the downstairs rooms first. Then there were heals clicking on the wooden floor and I saw Lena’s slim figure. She walked past Jaden first not even looking at him, only clicked the counter, but then stopped in front of me. She eyed me for a while, saying nothing, just looking at me. I knew what she was doing, she was looking at every detail on my body, clothes, expressions, body movements… I did that too every day, on almost every person I came across. I could find out ten things about them in ten seconds. And that all before they uttered a word. I was kinda like Sherlock Holmes. And I loved it.  
The brilliance of knowing and being able to do something really well –this applies on kissing, having sex, stealing, etc.- is being able to tell when someone else doing it on you, and if they are doing it well or not. And when you know someone is doing it to you, for example stealing, you know how to avoid them actually getting anything from you.  
So when Lena stood there in her black shining leather heels, she got nothing out from me. Well nothing important. She learned very little about my clothing choice, from the styling of my hair, my facial expressions. And I saw that it infuriated her. I smiled a bit and she returned the polite smile.  
“Have you been enjoying your stay Mr. Simpson?” she asked. I nodded and smiled.  
“Yes I have.”  
“You’ve been treated well I presume?”  
“Yes. Very well.” I purposely glanced at Evert, who stayed in the room 4, on the left of Jaden’s.  
“Very well indeed.” I said and moved my eyes back to Lena. I knew she saw who I looked at. She glanced at Evert and I saw that he ducked his head, down avoiding her eyes, blushing just slightly. She looked back at me and I saw the smallest frown and tithing around her mouth. She was mad. Really mad. She knew that I had something with Evert and that something wasn’t just holding hands and it was very much against the rules she made. She smiled and I was impressed by the way she made it look very genuine.  
“Very well then. Good night.” she said, clicked her counter and moved on. I felt how Jaden and Evert were boring their eyes at me, but I just looked forward. 

Lena reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of a boy. I leaned forward on my heels and to my surprise saw that it was Justin. I didn’t know he lived on the same floor and hallway as me. She leaned to say something to him, he nodded and she clicked her counter and walked past me again, down the stairs.  
“In to your rooms.” she said and disappeared. As soon as she was gone, Jaden jumped the couple steps separating us and stood right in front of me, shoulders tense, hands in fists, breathing hard.  
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked in a low voice so the other boys wouldn’t hear us.  
“What do you mean?” I asked calmly. He huffed very irritated and then pointed at Evert.  
“With him.” he said. Evert looked up and walked over to us.  
“Well I recall we had sex in the closet where most of you have sex too.” I said and Evert rolled his eyes.  
“I know that. I meant why did you tell Lena?” Jaden asked angrily.  
“Why not?” I asked and Jaden took a deep breath.  
“You know what mate? Do what you want. But just remember that you still have over 60 days here and you are well on your way to make them very difficult.” he said and Evert staid quiet next to her. Jaden walked back to his own room and Evert staid there standing next to me.  
“He’s right you know.” he finally said.  
“About what?”  
“About what he said. 60 days is a long time. Even longer if you go on the wrong side with Lena.” he said and looked up. I saw a hint of worry in his eyes. I took a step closer and laid my hand on his chest. I pushed him back on the wall so he was pressed against it. I leaned closer, hovering above his lips. I breathed out a couple of times and I saw how his chest started to move faster up and down.  
“But blondie, the way I see it, its 60 days more time to have sex. Incredible, mind blowing, hard and fast, or slow and bone aching sex.” I whispered to his ear. His eyes slipped close before he quickly snapped them open again. I smirked, pushed away from the wall and walked to my room. Thirty seconds later the light started to blink above my door again, the door closed itself and then I heard the lock make a click, securing me in.

Night came and went and morning arrived. I got up feeling half happy and half irritated. I knew I had another day sitting on that stupid pink stool but in the other hand I was glad that I didn’t have to do any actual work.  
I got up and started to get dressed. I pulled on a pair of jeans and roamed my drawers for a shirt. I heard a knock on the door.  
“Come in.” I said without looking up.  
“Hey mate.” I heard Jaden’s voice.   
“Hey.” I said and dug deeper on the drawer.  
“Lost something?”  
“Nah, just looking for my shirt.” I said and finally found it. I took it out, a plain white dress shirt. I turned around and pulled the shirt on.  
“You dress like you’re going to some important dinner with the president or something:” he said and nodded towards me.  
“Nah, I have a tie for that.” I joked and he laughed. I walked over to him, closing the last two buttons. I took my cardigan and put it on. Jaden shuffled awkwardly with his feet and looked down. I knew he was about to say something, but I didn’t push him.  
“Um hey sorry about yesterday. Didn’t mean to be rude.” he said and kept looking down. I was surprised at least.  
“It’s alright. “ I only replied and he looked up. He was biting is lower lip and looking worried.  
“I mean you seem like a cool dude and there’s not a whole lot of them here. “he said and laughed.  
“You’re saying that I’m the kind of guy you want on your side on this house.” I said and he shook his head and smiled.  
“Yes, basically. Just trying to watch out for you with the whole Lena thing and all.” he said and I nodded.  
“I’ll watch you back too from now on. Cool?” I asked.   
“Cool.” he answered and smiled. I slapped him on the back and we left my room. Jaden was the kind of person I wanted to have on my side. He had something interesting about him, and I knew that I’d figure it out soon enough. We walked down the stairs without saying anything.  
“Hey Jaden.” a boy I have not met yet greeted Jaden at the end of the stairs. He was bold and had big nose and blue eyes.   
“Hey mate.” Jaden answered and they did a handshake.   
“Can we talk?” the guy asked but glanced at me nervously. Jaden nodded and turned to me.  
“I’ll see you at breakfast.” he said and I knew that was my cue to leave. I nodded and started to walk towards the dining room. I glanced back and saw that the two boys were walking bit further away, under the stairs. I stopped where the wall started and counted to five before poked my head from behind it. It was no surprise when I saw that the bold guy handed a brown packet to Jaden, who slipped in under his shirt, between his stomach and jeans. I smiled to myself and walked to the dining room. I had been right, but now wasn’t the time to tell Jaden that. I’d catch him later. 

Justin arrived couple minutes later, looking like he did yesterday. He wore an expression that told me nothing, his clothes very little and his movements nothing. It was quite frustrating and odd how he was so apathetic. Like there was nothing inside.   
He sat on the end of the table, got food, ate it and then pushed the plate away. He waited in silence, staring at one place, not having any kind of contact with anyone in the room. And everyone else treated him the same. It was almost as he was invisible. Nothing could touch him and he could touch nothing.

Lena came and told everyone to go to the main hall. Morning info was over in two minutes, there were no new information, Lena only said good morning and told everyone that their daily jobs would be the same as yesterday. She let us go and I looked for Justin. He was still sitting down, waiting for other people to leave first. I waited with him, since we’d go out the same time.   
“Hey Justin, Cody.” Evert’s voice spoke. I looked up and he was the round leather shaped awo.   
“I’ll let you out.” he continued and Justin got up. We followed Evert to the door where he showed the awo to the reader and after a metallic buzzing noise, the door clicked open. Justin walked straight out but Evert took me by the wrist. He looked me in the eyes and then glanced at Justin’s retreating back.  
“Just play nice okay? “ he said and I only chuckled.  
“Worried about me now are we?”  
“Shut up. Just don’t want you to get in to any kind of stupid trouble and get sent to the Box. “  
“And why’s that?” I asked and leaned closer  
“I’d miss your cock.” he said and pushed me out. I smirked and walked towards the carnage, not looking back. I heard Evert’s laughter, soon muffled by the thick door.

Justin got his overalls on and went straight to work. He opened the hood of a car and started to stare at the engine. I stood couple meters away from him, leaning to the concrete wall. He kept staring, his eyes darting between all the metal and rubber components of the car. I knew nothing about cars so I had no idea what he was looking. But I could tell that he was looking for something.  
Suddenly he sprang into action and collected some tools from the table. Then he walked back to the car and started to unscrew something.   
“Need any help?” I asked, not expecting him to answer. He didn’t even flinch and staid quiet.  
“Thought so.” I sighed and walked to the pink stool and sat down.

The next three hours went okay. After that I was really getting bored. If you are as smart as I am, you need something to use that mind for. I need something to occupy myself with, I can’t just sit and do nothing for long period of time. The three hours I spent thinking about stuff then cataloguing every plant, peace of fence, stone and mud puddle on the yard I could see. When I seriously started to consider counting every grain of sand, I stood up and walked back to Justin. He was deep inside the car, hands working fast. I studied him for a moment.  
“I am going to be bluntly honest here. I am going crazy. I have the IQ of -well a lot, and sitting around and doing nothing doesn’t work with me. So I’ll just do my thing and you can do yours. I’ll talk and you can stay silent and keep doing whatever it is you are doing in there. You don’t need to answer me, I won’t expect you to. Okay?” I said but he didn’t react.  
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I said and hopped on the table that had all kinds of tools on it.  
“So… when I said that I’ll do my thing, I meant well.. .It’s hard to explain. I analyze people pretty much. I try to find out everything there is to find out about them. Well interesting things. And all this by just looking at them. And since I have nothing to do and you are a human being whose communicating skills are below zero, I’ll just do what I do best.” I went on but there was no reaction, not any kind of sign he heard or minded what I was about to do.  
“Okay so… Starting from your appearance. I’d say that you are very rich, a lot richer than all of the boys put together here, and their parents for that matter – but you don’t want to show that. But you do appreciate the good things in life, the bit more expensive ones. No matter how much you want to be invisible and go unnoticed, you still have your vices and cave in with some things. You’re left handed but learned to use your right as your main hand. You’re short sighted and a bit allergic to p  
Polyhydroxyethyl Methacrylate.” I finished but he didn’t react in any way.   
“Good damn you’re worse than Alex.” I huffed and jumped down from the table. I started to walk towards the big folding doors when I heard a snicker. First I thought I stepped on something but after a quick glance at my feet I determined that I didn’t.   
“Did you say something?” I asked.  
“No.” he replied shortly “I laughed.”   
I spend a good thirty seconds staring at him.   
“Well this is new.” I thought to myself. I slowly walked back to him, but he didn’t look any different from a minute ago when he wasn’t talking.  
“And why’s that?” I asked, half expecting him not to answer.  
“Because you are wrong.” he said and came out from under the hood of the car to pick up a tool from the floor. He pocketed it and dived back in.  
“I’m wrong…?” I asked.  
“Yes.” he said shortly, still not sharing a glance at my direction.  
“And why’s that?”  
“Well you’re so smart, you’ll figure it out.” he said in a tone that wasn’t sarcasm. It was a bit like a challenge, but he sounded like he didn’t quite care if I figured it out or not.  
“Okay. “ I said and then he stayed quiet.  
I walked back to the little pink stool by the door and sat down.

Dinner came and Evert walked down the carnage, smirking at me.  
“Had a good morning honey?” he asked.   
“It was alright.” I answered and stretched out my legs which had become cold and stiff.  
“Need any help warming up?” he asked and blew hot air in to my neck.  
“Yes, “ I whispered and leaned close to him. “ I’ll just let myself in.” I said and pulled back, dangling the awo he’d been carrying in front of his face. He looked at me his mouth open and tried to snatch it back. I was quicker and anticipated his move and took a step back. I smirked at him and started to walk towards the main building. I looked back and saw that Evert narrowed his eyes at me and then started to stomp after me. Justin was leaning in to the wall and looked unimpressed.

Evert caught up with me in the main door and snatched the key back.  
“How the hell did you do that?” he asked.  
“It’s simple really. Divert your attention, take the key and done.” I said and walked in as the door opened. He gripped me from the collar of my shirt and yanked me close to him.  
“I’ll make you pay for that.” he said angrily but I saw the hidden arousal in his eyes. I smirked and answered  
“I’m looking for it.” and walked away to the dining hall. 

Lena came and counted us and the food arrived. I sat down next to Jaden. He greeted me and I did the same. Evert sat next to me, a bit closer than necessary. Jaden’s eyes flickered from me to Evert but he didn’t say anything. I just kept eating and let my eyes wonder from one face to another on the table. Justin was sitting opposite of me, keeping his eyes on the plate. He didn’t look like he had just actually spoken to me earlier.  
“Hey Jaden?” I asked .  
“Mmm?” he said his mouth full of food.  
“Does he ever talk?” He looked at me and followed my gaze that rested on Justin.  
“Justin? Sometimes.” he said and went back to his food, but I saw the slight tensing in this shoulders.   
“Are you friends?” I asked, knowing they couldn’t be, not the way Jaden was acting. If they had been Jaden wouldn’t be so on the edge talking about him. But they knew each other some way, that was obvious.  
“Something like that.” he answered. I leaned closer so the others wouldn’t hear us.  
“I presume you do some business together.” I said and Jaden stopped the spoon that was half way up going to his mouth. He looked at me, then stopped andput the spoon down and cleared his throat.  
“So you know?”  
“Of course I know. You were so far from being subtle that it was pretty much the same as shouting to Lena that you’re dealing inside.” I said and he hissed at me.  
“Shut up! I don’t want anyone to find out you prick. What do you want?” he asked.  
“Oh don’t treat me like I’m some sort of blackmailer, we’re buddies right? Just tell me about him.” I said and nodded towards Justin. Jaden looked at me for a moment, his eyes darting between me and Justin.  
“Why do you want to know?”  
“Pure interest. Something to keep me busy while I’m here.” I answered and took a bite from my sandwich. He looked at me curiously but then took a deep breath in.  
“He’s not in on it.” he said and looked down.  
“On the dealing?”  
“Yes. Not that I didn’t offer. He looks like a guy who could use some….help. He always says no, doesn’t want anything to do with it, never complained to Lena about me. He just…is. That’s all I can tell about him.” he said and I was left there to wonder about this new information.  
“Why did he get here?”  
“It was some mess with cops and his family...” Jaden said. I knew we were talking about the subject we weren’t allowed to talk about, why someone was here and what they’ve done. I knew it was no of my business and it was rude to ask and go digging around someone else’s business. But I had this feeling that I needed to figure him out, what was under that silent, apathetic skin of his?  
“What did he do?” Jaden just shook his head.  
“You know I can’t tell you. I can say something but if he wants you to know then he’ll tell you and you just have to ask.” he shrugged and I knew I wouldn’t get much more out of him. I was already pushing it. I only got that peace of information out from him because I told him I knew about his little business inside here. I wanted to find out more about that too, what he was dealing, how he did it, but there was more than enough time for that later.  
“He’s kinda like you. Well a lot. You have similar reasons why you are here.” Jaden suddenly said. Something clicked in my head. I remembered something but it was like it was hiding behind a thin curtain, thick enough for me not to see the answer, but thin enough so I could see the blurry outlines and hear it mocking and laughing at me. There was something really familiar about his face. There was something, I knew it, I just couldn’t get to it.  
Then it hit me.  
“What’s his last name Jaden?” I asked in a rushed voice. He glanced at me curiously.

“Umm Bieber. Justin Bieber.” he answered. Then it all became clear.   
“Bieber.” I breathed out. “yes of course.” I said, staring at the table my eyes wide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Notes.  
> o m g. For two things, first, the cliff hanger, second the time I last updated. Both are unbelievable. 
> 
> Tell me what you think by dropping a review (this story has like three) or tweeting me about it. I would be very happy after that.  
> Love you all!
> 
> Twitter = neongiraffeblodg  
> Tumblr = neongiraffeblog  
> wattpad = neongiraffe  
> archiveofourown = neongiraffe
> 
> Choose any of them!

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes:
> 
> Okay for those who have been reading CCC, this is something completely different. (for those who are wondering what CCC is, it's my other story Chocolate Chip Cookies, go check it out if you want something romantic and fluffy)
> 
> Anyways, I've had this idea for a while now and just started writing it and here it is. I know Cody is very OOC at this, but you'll understand why he is the way he is later on so. Well that's if you decide to read on. And if this isn't your kind of fic and you prefer something more conventional and romantic then I'm fine with it, let's stay friends and don't hate me okay?
> 
> Anyways huge thanks to all of those who read this and all of those who had followed me during CCC and grown with me and Justin and Cody. You guys mean the world to me and always will.
> 
> With love,
> 
> #neongiraffe


End file.
